Comments on: How to Solve Uninstall Errors

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:25:05 +0000

@Walter – If the program installer won’t work, you can try to delete the program manually. Delete the folder in the Program Files on the hard disk. The risk is that files belonging to the program that are residing on a different location are not removed, and the registry entries won’t be cleared. But you can clean up the registry with various tools anyway.
You could also try a program like SecureUninstaller. It should remove all related files and the registry entries.

By: Walter

Walter — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:15:47 +0000

I had issued removing some software my kids accidentaly installed on my PC. I couldnt uninstall it and a friend suggested I try CA Antivirus Plus.
It removed the virus but the uninstaller will not remove the program because it says files are in quarantine. How do i get around that problem

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:22:14 +0000

@Eric – Glad you solved it, and thanks for sharing the solution in your case. Simple indeed … once you know :)

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:48:55 +0000

Anthony, thanks for the reply. I figured out the problem. The test workstation had Office 2003 virtualized through SVS and so the section of the registry it was trying to access was protected through that. I created a new test box with Office installed locally and it worked.

It’s always the simple things…

By: Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:17:24 +0000

@Eric – I have not seen the error 1404 come up with anything else than a permission problem. If you have already ensured that your user account has full access and ownership of the key involved, then the only other thing I can think of is that there is an “in-use” problem. Considering that you are changing Windows or Office related keys, it could be that a service or program is running that is blocking the access.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:53:28 +0000

Two other things:
1. We are trying to distribute this through Altiris so having the users click on ignore is not a viable option
2. I modified the package to install with the credentials of the logged on user; when I try to install to my workstation I do have Full permission to the registry key mentioned

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:49:56 +0000

I am trying to install a package for Project 2007 on an XP SP3 machine and am getting the error:

Error 1404. Setup cannot delete the registry key \software\classes\xmlfile\shell\open

I am presented with three buttons: Cancel, Retry and Ignore. Cancel will stop the install, but will leave behind most of the files and folders under the install directory. Clicking on Retry brings the error back up. When I click on Ignore, the installation continues and the app seems to install just fine. I have already disabled all of my anti-virus and firewall software.

Any ideas?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:52:48 +0000

@lwendo chikange – The .ldb extension is related to MS Access, so the only other possibility that I see is that there is other software installed that has a dependency on this key. Do you have anything installed that uses a database? Or maybe a programming environment like Visual Studio?
Try uninstalling MS Access first before uninstalling MS Office 2003.

By: lwendo chikange

lwendo chikange — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:12:57 +0000

After following up your solution, am still unable to delete the registry key or should i say Subkey. Let me lighten you up about my error.
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003 ERROR SETUP
Error 1404. Setup cannot delete the registry key \software\classes\.ldb. verify that you have sufficient permissions to access the registry or contact your information technology department for assistance.

Please help how do i install this software on Vista Business??????

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:51:14 +0000

@Andrew – Try clicking the Advanced button in the registry key properties. Then select the Owner tab and make sure you change the owner to the Administrator or you current user login.

Ownership, access rights and ‘in-use’ are the main three causes of not being able to delete files, folders and registry keys.

If the ownership change does not help, there must a program or service locking the key.

Anthony