Windows 7 - More Synaptics Touchpad Woes

So I've upgraded to windows 7 64-bit and now I'm having trouble even installing a Synaptics driver. No matter what version I use (I've been all over the internet, including Gateway's site) the install always fails, most often with this screen.



I know this is a tough one, but I'd appreciate your help.

Have you tried loading it in Vista Compatibility mode?

Yeah; I've tried that but still the same results.

I assume you are downloaded one compatible with 64bit. Inside the folder you extracted the files to, there should be an installer just for the 64-bit driver. Locate it and run that one. See if the result is the same.

Go to the Gateway website.

Download the correct driver for your model and your version of Win 7.

DEVMGMT.msc | Mice and other pointing devices |
right-click on Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad |
Select Properties |
Driver tab |
Uninstall button

After uninstall shut down your notebook.

Power on your notebook.
Install the driver you downloaded.

I figured out what was going on. Turns out, avast antivirus had deleted TrustedInstaller.exe from my C:/Windows/servicing directory, which kinda makes your digital life suck. Anyway, I found a copy of TrustedInstaller.exe here ((SOLVED) Trustedinstaller.exe), copied it into the C:/Windows/servicing directory using the process described in porktree's post here (Windows update failing with 0x80070424 among other things (update agent won't install) - this also has a download of TrustedInstaller.exe and a registry key I wasn't able to import), restarted my computer and things could install again. Finally.

Cullen,

Many thanks for getting back to us with the solution. Very interesting. I'd never heard of the problem. Now let's just hope that the old-timer's doesn't set in and that I can remember this solution.

Thanks for your help in this; it was baffling me for a long time and then I started googling other problems that were happening (Windows update mysteriously failing, any windows troubleshooter claiming the troubleshooting wizard had an error and couldn't complete, etc.) when I finally tried running sfc, and it failed. It was a crazy chain of events. Who would have guessed one missing file was the root of so many problems?

Cullen,
You actually probably had a backup copy, created by MS, on your disk already.

Here's where my is:
TrustedInstaller.exe C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-trustedinstaller_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_90e389a7ae7a4b6c\TrustedInstaller.exe 13-Jul-09 19:14:42 204800 Archive C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-trustedinstaller_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_90e389a7ae7a4b6c


Now I know that's confusing to read. I was too lazy to filter the output of a powershell script I wrote to search anywhere and everywhere on my hard drive. The last c:\windows\winsxs.... is the directory.

Wow; I guess I'll save that for next time.