Corrupt Registry

Hi,

My new work computer, running win7 is now unable to install software. I get various error msgs towards the end of installations. Usually some component or dll cannot be found. Aside from this inconvenience my system seems to be running smoothly.

Our IT support guys have examined the system and have determined that my registry has become corrupt. They want to take my system and reformat it, and also run some intense hardware diagnostics. This is the second time this has happened in two months. I suspect these guys are just taking the easy option of reformatting rather than actual trouble shooting.

Can anyone provide a second opinion? Are these kinds of corruptions common and is a reformat really required?

Tnx

Most of the time IT support guys do think about software problems. Reimaging the desktop/laptop takes about 30 minutes. Actually just 5 minutes and let's say 25 minutes of waiting. So IT support for example can reimage 50 desktops using network boot very fast. Quite easy and save. Everything will still be there, as log as you put all your files on the network shares. If you use roaming profiles all user settings are back as well. It's kind of a standard procedure!

Troubleshooting the issue costs lots of extra time and so money.
------------
What kind of installations are you talking about? Are you logged on on domain or locally? Do you have admin rights?

Cheers for the quick response... This kind of IT support approach really bugs me. Surely if there are bugs then they should be found? So that the problem is resolved. (I'm a hardware engineer myself, so the equivalent to me is throwing something in the bin and getting a new one)

I found the problem while trying to install Visual Studio shell, but I think the error occurs for any installation which writes to the registry (most all of them I reckon).

My full system reformat will take a minimum of 2-3 days. I have lots of software on here which will also need to be reinstalled and updated. IT take the laptop to do this, so in real terms it ends up taking a week.

Roaming profiles... I'm interested in this! Can you elaborate? As I work in a country with a different first language, after a format I need to spend half a day fixing all settings to English. Along with my own layout and appearance preferences

Even hardware engineers do the same (sort of). Do you repair memory, usb sticks, networks cards, GPU? I don't think so. Most of the time it's ... replace with new one.

You install all software yourself (I mean are you allowed to install software)? Are you allowed to change system settings like date/time, add accounts? So all things you can do with a personally bought laptop as well?

You can connect to the work stuff by entering username/password so accessing file shares. Also connect to exchange server using ip-adres and username/password. But actually you can do everything you want to do? Correct?

Sure I guess

Most things yes, although licenced software is a usually done by IT

Yes, except install any new software

Colm said:

Sure I guess

Most things yes, although licenced software is a usually done by IT

Yes, except install any new software

Click to expand...

Don't understand. Can or can't you install software locally yourself? Can you add accounts? Not that you should do that, but is it possible with your user rights?

Yes, I have full admin access. So I have the right to install programs but cannot because of the corrupt registry problem

Colm said:

Yes, I have full admin access. So I have the right to install programs but cannot because of the corrupt registry problem

Click to expand...

So actually it's just a home owner laptop. "roaming profiles" is not possible.

If you create a new user (just to test) ... can he install software?

What part of registry is corrupt (user, local machine, classes root)?
What do they mean with corruption .... wrong values, or really unreadable/unwriteable?

You make win7 "restore points" when installing/uninstalling software (default). Try a "system restore" to a previous point in time. Maybe this solves it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

Colm said:

I found the problem while trying to install Visual Studio shell, but I think the error occurs for any installation which writes to the registry (most all of them I reckon).

Click to expand...

What you think isn't important. First prove it! Can you install/uninstall other software? Can you install/uninstall soem windows updates? If not then it's a generic problem.

Take a look in "event log" for errors. Post and/or describe exact error message when installing software.

I assure you it's a work laptop, although my employer is liberal about rights. I don't see how adding a new user is relevant.

I just successfully un-installed/re-installed firefox, spotify. Id rather not try any of my work programs. I tried to update but it says 'Windows Update has been disabled by your system administrator'. The last time this happened window updates were failing to install

So I retried MS Visual Studio shell, go through the various prompts and the installation begins with 'Microsoft Application Error Reporting'. It halts here for about 20 minutes, not making it to the next step (at least according to the installer GUI), it requests a restart and I oblige. After restart the installation seems to continue (Atmel Studio, the installation which initiated the MS Visual Shell installation

Heres the error report from the installation...

[06/28/12,15:41:37] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
[06/28/12,15:58:16] Microsoft Application Error Reporting: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft Application Error Reporting. MSI returned error code 1603
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Application Error Reporting is not installed.
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates VC 10.0 Runtime (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates .NET Framework 4 Multi-Targeting Pack was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) - ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Objects was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0 x86 was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,15:58:18] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
***EndOfSession***[06/28/12,16:52:17] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
[06/28/12,17:08:00] Microsoft Application Error Reporting: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft Application Error Reporting. MSI returned error code 1603
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Application Error Reporting is not installed.
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates VC 10.0 Runtime (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates .NET Framework 4 Multi-Targeting Pack was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) - ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Objects was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0 x86 was not attempted to be installed.
[06/28/12,17:08:03] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
***EndOfSession***[06/29/12,10:12:26] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
[06/29/12,10:29:47] Microsoft Application Error Reporting: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft Application Error Reporting. MSI returned error code 1603
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Application Error Reporting is not installed.
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates VC 10.0 Runtime (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates .NET Framework 4 Multi-Targeting Pack was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) - ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Objects was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0 x86 was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,10:29:49] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
***EndOfSession***[06/29/12,14:24:19] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
[06/29/12,14:39:32] Microsoft Application Error Reporting: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft Application Error Reporting. MSI returned error code 1603
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Application Error Reporting is not installed.
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates VC 10.0 Runtime (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates .NET Framework 4 Multi-Targeting Pack was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) - ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Objects was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0 x86 was not attempted to be installed.
[06/29/12,14:39:35] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
***EndOfSession***[07/11/12,16:01:40] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!
[07/11/12,16:20:17] Microsoft Application Error Reporting: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft Application Error Reporting. MSI returned error code 1603
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Application Error Reporting is not installed.
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates VC 10.0 Runtime (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates .NET Framework 4 Multi-Targeting Pack was not attempted to be installed.
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated) - ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types was not attempted to be installed.
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Objects was not attempted to be installed.
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Help Viewer 1.0 x86 was not attempted to be installed.
[07/11/12,16:20:19] VS70pgui: [2] CFinishPage::UpdateFinal(): Could not find the readme.htm in the client directory as expected!


And the error event in the event logger

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="MsiInstaller" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">11935</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-07-11T13:15:15.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>7903</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>ESPTT3K719.ad.vtt.fi</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-21-1708537768-412668190-839522115-56293" />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data>Product: Microsoft Application Error Reporting -- Error 1935. An error occurred during the installation of assembly 'Microsoft.VC80.CRT,version="8.0.50727.42",type="win32",processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"'. Please refer to Help and Support for more information. HRESULT: 0x800736FD. assembly interface: IAssemblyCacheItem, function: Commit, component: {98CB24AD-52FB-DB5F-A01F-C8B3B9A1E18E}</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data>(NULL)</Data>
<Data />
<Binary>7B39353132303030302D303042392D303430392D303030302D3030303030303046463143457D</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

I also get the error in the even logger (every 30 seconds or so)

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="{555908d1-a6d7-4695-8e1e-26931d2012f4}" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49152">7023</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-07-11T13:19:47.284156800Z" />
<EventRecordID>89600</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="640" ThreadID="4448" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>ESPTT3K719.ad.vtt.fi</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="param1">Windows Modules Installer</Data>
<Data Name="param2">%%1009</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>