Cannot uninstall a program in Windows 7

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by mdcatdad, Feb 6, 2010.

  1. mdcatdad

    mdcatdad Bit poster

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    I'm trying to install a program from DVD but first I have to uninstall/remove a trial version
    I downloaded 6 weeks ago.

    I don't remember why I tried to uninstall the program piecemeal, by moving files to the Recycle Bin, but when I thought I'd removed all the files I tried to install the program again from the DVD but got an error message that the program was already installed and I'd have to uninstall it. However, when I try to Uninstall I get a message that it can't reach network location \.psf\Home\Documents, so I'm stuck.

    I'm using Mac OS 10.6.2 and Parallels 5. Any advice would be appreciated.
     
  2. Shaddam IV

    Shaddam IV Forum Maven

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    623
    maybe a Registry cleanup could help. Google ccleaner.
     
  3. mdcatdad

    mdcatdad Bit poster

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    Thanks for the suggestion, Shaddam (I see you're a Dune fan ;-) but even after running CCLeaner on the registry I get the same response, that it's can't uninstall because it can't find \\.psf\Home\Documents

    Unless someone has another idea I might just reinstall Windows and wipe everything out. I won't have lost anything much.
     
  4. Shaddam IV

    Shaddam IV Forum Maven

    Messages:
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    Yeah, Dune... one of my favourites :)

    I don't know how the Windows Registry works but I've found that trying to manually remove programs from Windows causes interdimensional time warps which, on Windows, are not a Good Thing. What happens if you try to set up a directory /Home/Documents on your .psf drive (which is the Parallels Shared Folders)? I guess the deinstaller won't find anything there to deinstall but maybe it will progress a bit farther.
     
  5. mdcatdad

    mdcatdad Bit poster

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    I used another installer called Revo that was recommnded in an e-newsletter from my ISP and
    it removed a lot of stuff, especially from the Registry, that CCLeaner didn't.

    Now when I try to install the program (ABBYY Lingvo v.12, Russian-made software) I no
    longer get the "already installed" message but the installer complains it can't find
    the shared folder \\.psf....
     
  6. Shaddam IV

    Shaddam IV Forum Maven

    Messages:
    623
    Have you set up Shared Folders in your VM?
     
  7. mdcatdad

    mdcatdad Bit poster

    Messages:
    6
    Shared folders

    Yes, I had it configured to:

    Share these folders: Home folder
    and changed that to All Disks

    with "Access Windows Folders from Mac"
    and "Mount virtual disks to Mac Desktop" both checked

    but the installer still complains of an inability to find
    the \\.psf\Home\Documents folder.

    Should I add something to User-Defined Mac OS X folders?
     
  8. Shaddam IV

    Shaddam IV Forum Maven

    Messages:
    623
    Weird. why don't you try completely isolating the VM for the Mac (there's a setting for that in the VM's settings menu; I don't have Parallels running right now so I don't know where that setting sits - it's accessible from one of the entries you'll find under the Options tab in the VM settings dialog). This will suppress the shared folders on the Windows side (among other things such as copy-paste which also won't work any longer). Try running the installer again; it should not even dream of trying to access .psf as that thing doesn't exist for Windows any longer.

    If that works you can turn off the "isolate" checkbox so that you can use your shared folders again.

    If the installer is still looking for the .psf drive then the installer left something in the registry; you may have to edit the registry manually by looking where ".psf" shows up in the registry. However, I recommend you make a backup copy of Parallels beforehand as I'm fairly certain that doing the wrong things here will mess up your Windows install (at least as long as you've got the Parallels tools installed). Good luck!
     
  9. mdcatdad

    mdcatdad Bit poster

    Messages:
    6
    Thanks, that did the trick!

    For some reason the installter took about 15 minutes to install from CD, demanded a location for a network administrator, didn't create a shortcut for the .exe file, and then the software won't run because of a missing font.

    I'm taking this up with the company, of course.

    Thanks again for your help. I wonder if I'll have to (or will remember) do this for all software!
     
  10. Shaddam IV

    Shaddam IV Forum Maven

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    You're welcome!
     

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