Deleted Uninstall Directory

Liability Waiver:

First of all, we at Rous and Associates L.L.C. (in hereby referred to as “we”, “Rous”, or “us”) do not guarantee you that this method will work for you, but it has worked for quite a few people. We cannot offer you any warranty, and accept no liability for what may occur by use of this method or offered download. We have merely put together an option that is not commonly known, and one that I whipped together one afternoon after someone asked this question. It worked for them, it worked for 9 other people who tried it, and Gango was able to put together a posting of instructions for it. I thank him immensely for that, I didn’t even think about it! At least it’s an option that doesn’t include formatting your drive and starting over. This information and included file(s) are offered “as is” and is informational only, we provide no warranty for them, in whole or in part; by using this method, or downloading the suggested file(s), you agree to indemnify or hold blameless Rous, Gango (aka Pedro), and any other person – or corporation – that helped with the instruction(s) or download(s) for this method from any damages that may occur during use of this method, including, but not limited to; data loss, hardware damage, or any other kind of damage. Improper editing of the registry can cause your computer to function improperly, in which case you may have to reformat your drive and reinstall your OS.

My uninstall directory has been deleted, or doesn't exist, what do I do now?

By Chris Cost

Pre-install Discussion and Disclosure:

Some programs, like CCleaners, delete some of the uninstall directories in the %windir%. They do this because, most of the time, they are unnecessary and just take up space. The majority of the reason it deletes IE7B2P’s uninstall directory is because it’s treated as a “HotFix” rather than a normal program.

If you’ve looked around on the Internet Explorer 7 discussion group, you’ll notice that the Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) say your only option is to reformat in a case where you’ve lost the uninstall directory. They also say the method Pedro aka Gango and I (no, we are not mentioned by name) came up with is dangerous, and should not be attempted… among accusations we may have put “something” unspecified in the packaged uninstaller. My only question: if the only answer is to reformat, then what do you have to lose? Well, other than being miffed at their accusations, I shrug my shoulders and realize they haven’t come up with any viable, or valuable, alternatives. For all their talk about downloading files (like those in our method) being “dangerous”, they sure offer a whole lot of (.reg files) them! If you agree with my logic about having nothing to lose anyway, then I have – at least – a solution that does not include reformatting your entire hard drive. Could it harm your OS? I severely doubt it, to be honest, though our computers are all different; the uninstaller remains almost exactly the same. I say almost because there could be slight differences, but say you have to reformat anyway, what have you lost? So, do you still want to risk it? If so, keep reading.

The only thing I do ask is to try the uninstall methods suggested by Microsoft first. Meaning, trying to find the uninstall folder at (without quotes) “%windir%\$NtUninstallie7b2pmx$\spuninst\spuninst.exe”. Only use our method if it was deleted.

Prerequisites:

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview

Deleted uninstall directory (located at %windir%\$NtUninstallie7b2pmx$, or %windir%\$NtUninstallie7b2$, or ie7beta3, depending on your version), if it exists, it is recommended you use the one already in your Windows directory.

Enough computer skills to turn on the “Show hidden Files and Folders” and some registry (or inf) editing, if necessary.

Administrative account, the same one that installed it, if you are unsure which account installed IE7B2P, then see the “Errors” section.

Instructions:

Please, if you have any trouble with downloading these files, or the links seem invalid, email me. First, disable Windows Updates.

First, run this program to ensure the uninstall directory does not exist. If it does, you should use that one.

If that does not work, to rebuild the uninstall directory (It was tested on the version previous to 5335, we could not find the installer for 5335 or earlier to test it in a virtual environment. If you have it, please contact us. Thank you.) 5335.5 up to 5450.5 run this application and select "Begin" to start the rebuilding process. Please read the EULA (End User Licensing Agreement, these guidelines for use are not suggestions and note the only legal use of the program is to rebuild a deleted uninstall directory. If you run into any errors in the rebuild application, please click "Details" and copy the text in the box that appears below the error message. If you cannot right click it, press Ctrl and, while holding it, "C". Email it to me and I will make sure it is investigated by the IE 7 Uninstall Rebuild team.

If you have any issues, you can email us on the Contact Us form with any questions or comments. If there are errors you would like to see added, please request them and attach your log files. For personalized service (basically, faster than general service), please see our services page for a list of current prices, then contact us at the phone number listed on the Contact Us page.

Testimonials:

We have received requests for posting testimonials, these are posted only with explicit permission from the user. We do not use real names, but pseudonym chosen by the user (if requested). If you wish to have yours added, please contact us and end the message (or add to the subject line) "Testimonial for Rous Internet Explorer 7 Uninstall Rebuild and File Scan Software". Thank you.

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From Sjsdoc:

Thank you, thank you. I see you don't publish testimonials, too bad. One last question. I rebooted when it said so. Then after it came back up, I went back to web site, re-downloaded small asp program and tried to remove uninstall files but it didn't do anything. Just stayed on 'waiting for interaction....'. I am in IE6 now. Anything else I can do?

Thanks again, great work. This needs to get out on the web.
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Updates:

8/26/2006 | We will be adding RC 1 to our uninstall rebuild. Please give us a few days to research and test the additions, as well as add them in. Check back every few days or so, and we will post on here when the RC 1 is added in. Thank you for your patience.

10/3/2006 | RC 1 has been added to our uninstall rebuilds, we apologize for the delay. Thank you for your patience and we hope we are continuing to be of service.

10/13/2006 | IP address was changed.

Errors:

"Please log on to the same user account from which it was installed and try again"

If you are unsure of which account installed it and you get the error “Please log on to the same user account from which it was installed and try again”, you can check in the registry at the key (without quotes) “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" Look for a string called "InstalledByUser”. If it doesn’t exist, create a string called “InstalledByUser” with the value of your user name.

Or, alternatively, you may run this application that I have made available to our consultants to save time (if they run into this error). It will check your registry, and then launch the removal application in your Windows Directory.

If you are unsure of how to edit the registry, or are uncomfortable doing it (or running our application), the other option is from Pedro:

[Chris' note: First make a copy of the file, before editing it.]

Edit the spuninst.inf in: “%windir%\$NtUninstallie7b2pmx$\spuninst” with Notepad and look for the following strings:

------------------------------

[NoSort.UserMustBeSameAsInstall.Section]

            PresentOp       =          checkReg,HKCU,SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer,InstalledByUser,0x10001

            Display_String            =          Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview cannot be uninstalled from this user account. Please log on to the same user account from which it was installed and try again.

[Prerequisite]

            condition         =          SingleOp,NoSort.UserMustBeSameAsInstall.Section

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Delete the whole section and save the .inf file. This should get rid of the 'same account' uninstall error message...

Thanks for the tip Gango!