WINDOWS INSTALLER PROGRAM POPS UP 1

[marchristensen]

I have a program, FavSearch, I have been using for quite some time. Today when I started the program I got a Windows Installer box with the message: The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package startman10396.msi.

Startman is a program I used to use with Windows 98 that I tried to install a long time ago. It never worked with Windows XP. I have tried to uninstall Startman but get the same Windows Installer message. What is strange is that a very long time elapsed between the time I tried to install Startman and the time I got this installer message.

I tried to go back to an XP restore point and could not. Can you think of anything that will work? Thanks.

 

[linney]

Run the Disk Cleanup tool to clean out your Temp files; and also manually clear out any files in your username Temp folder in this location. You may have to show Hidden and show System files to see the Temp folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\UserNamexxxx\Local Settings\Temp

A clean out of the files in the Prefetch folder in the Windows folder won't hurt either, as they will be recreated as you start programs.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_p.htm#xp_prefetch

 

[marchristensen]

Just had to thank you for the kellys-korner site. It has a wealth of information on XP and I intend to spend some serious time there. I will try clearing the files you suggested.

I have had some partial success. I used regedit and cleared every reference to startman (there were at least 30 of them). This gave me two improvements - Startman is no longer on my add/remove program list (previously I could not remove it) and I can start FavSearch immediately - although I still see the Windows Installer window flash for a moment - I'd really like to get rid of that. Hopefully cleaning out some of the files you suggested will help.

 

[bcastner]

http://www-pc.uni-regensburg.de/systemsw/OFFICE/O2K/msiclean.htm

 

[marchristensen]

bcastner - This could be the problem, as I do have Office 2000 installed, but the Microsoft fix comes in two versions: Win 95/98 and Win 2000/NT - nothing for XP. Might it still work?

 

[bcastner]

The tool examines any MSI installed application.

 

[marchristensen]

Even though it says it will not work with an alternate version of Windows?

 

[bcastner]

All you need to do is obtain the latest version of MSIZAP.EXE (minimum version of 2.0.2600.0). This tool is found in the Windows Installer SDK:

http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/

. Instructions on how to use the tool can be found in the Windows Installer MSDN documentation at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/msi/setup/msizap_exe.asp

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Bill Castner