Shareware Shopper

I’m encountering error code 2869 and inability to install a program (Orphalese Tarot, which I like to experiment with as a sort of creative thinking tool) and also to uninstall it.

Prepare for excessive use of the words install and uninstall. Best to avoid trying for synonyms when discussing something like this eh?

The process:

1) I had an old install of the program. I decided I wanted to upgrade it from shareware, but found that somehow I had broken the install, so I downloaded the installer again and tried uninstalling the old program. Windows uninstall repeatedly failed, encountering (in the words of a popup error box) error code 2869. It did this after seemingly finishing most of what it’s supposed to do — graphically, there was a cute little effect where the full installation progress bar empties, walking backwards to the beginning, if that makes sense.
2) I then tried using Final Uninstaller (this was probably a mistake from the get-go) but the program uses windows uninstall before performing its function of forcing a removal of the registry entries. It failed in the same way.
3) So I then decided to manually get rid of the files and just use Final Uninstaller to wipe the registry afterwards. No error codes at this point …
4) I then try to use the Orphalese Tarot installer, and it encounters … error code 2869 and the same graphic where the progress bar backtracks to the beginning.
5) I finally do the smarter thing of researching error code 2869. It is suggested confirming my suspicions that this is a sign of a corrupt old installation. I end up being directed by my reading to (some people got the same error code with different programs, and this worked for them) :

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

I download the installer for this Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, msicuu.exe , and after a little while get it to run successfully after "Run As Administrator". The utility is installed.

6) I boot up the utility and find that Orphalese Tarot is not listed on the list of programs I have, probably because I was retarded and I wiped the registry entries.

Of course, there’s still something somewhere, because the install doesn’t work.

My question is: now what? Am I just going to have to give up on getting this program on this computer without having to do a system restore or worse? (not worth it unfortunately)

Heh, hope someone can help, and thanks for reading my irritating way of describing this. If anyone needs more details I’m happy to try my best to provide them.

I don’t know if this will work but it might be worth giving it a try. Basically it scans your software looking for unpatched programs and remnants of old programs and directs you to the relevant fix from the manufacturer’s website. If no fix is available the file path is shown for manual removal.

I prefer the personal version which can be downloaded then used in advanced mode but there is also a free online scan. It’s not one of those dodgy sites which tries to sell you something or install harmful software.

http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 10:21 am and is filed under shareware utilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.