Uninstalling and Reinstalling Windows Live

Recently my Live Messenger has been giving me a lot of hang issues - right after clicking on a contact or installing a new emoticon. I plan to reinstall but I cannot find "Windows Live" on add/remove window.

I tried uninstalling Windows Live Essential but it seems like it's not responding to my order or query.

I wonder if an upgrade from Vista has any significant impact on the performance of my computer, since my brother's Pentium M powered laptop run Windows Seven smoothly on fresh install.

Netsoft said:

Recently my Live Messenger has been giving me a lot of hang issues - right after clicking on a contact or installing a new emoticon. I plan to reinstall but I cannot find "Windows Live" on add/remove window.

I tried uninstalling Windows Live Essential but it seems like it's not responding to my order or query.

I wonder if an upgrade from Vista has any significant impact on the performance of my computer, since my brother's Pentium M powered laptop run Windows Seven smoothly on fresh install.

Netsoft

True, we really do need ppl to fill out their system specs. If you are asking if upgrading to win 7 will increase your performance we cant tell until we know what your system is. Generally a clean install (of vista or win 7) will make your system as efficient and quick as its going to be. My personal opinion is win 7 will help

Ken

LFB said:

First, please fill your system specs...

For remove Live Messenger, I think you have to look for Windows Live Essentials in uninstall programs list...

That's great. It's listed on my Add/Remove list as well, but again, is not responding to my query. I am not entirely sure what went wrong, perhaps someone would be able to figure the solutions later.

zigzag3143 said:

Netsoft

True, we really do need ppl to fill out their system specs. If you are asking if upgrading to win 7 will increase your performance we cant tell until we know what your system is. Generally a clean install (of vista or win 7) will make your system as efficient and quick as its going to be. My personal opinion is win 7 will help

Ken

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I do agree that fresh install was always better and upgrade from vista was too good to be true. Will consider reinstalling, but haven't got my hand on any external devices at the moment.

Tews said:

Interesting question, but unless you take the time to fill out your system specs, we'll probably never know.

My system specifications are:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0 Ghz
Memory: 2GB Of RAM.
Graphic: Intel Discreet card with up to 256mb shared memory.
HDD: 80GB of space with up to 30GB free at the moment.

By the way, this is my IBM laptop, the T61 series.

I was unable to successfully update Windows Live Messenger via IE setup
when prompted to update.
Message: "Windows Messenger will not connect must
update to latest version"...

Installation was initiate but was rolled back and gave a 0x80004004 error which was non-specific.
This appears to be a common problem for many people.

This installation did not complete successfully and I had much trouble in figuring
out why.

Solution:

Download the Microsoft Installer Cleanup Uninstall Utility and install it.
Download the Windows Live Essentials installer program and save it to a known location.
DON'T RUN IT until completing the following steps:

1) Run msconfig.exe from Start > Run > type msconfig.exe into search box. Run it as
administrator.
2) Select "Diagnostic Startup" starting only basic windows services. Make sure
all startup programs are unchecked under the Startup Tab.
3) Apply, OK, and reboot and login.
4) Navigate to C:\Program Files(x86). Delete all files under the directory Windowns Live.
Remove the directory.
5) Navigate to Common Files\Microsoft Shared and delete all the files in the
Windows Live directory. Remove the directory.
6) Navigate to C:\Program Files and c:\Program Files\Common Files and delete all
the files in the Windows Live directories. Remove the directories.
7) Run msicuu.exe, Select all references to Windows Live and anything else that
you might want to uninstall completely that is still has remnants on your system.
8) Clean the registry using a registry cleaner such as Registry Mechanic or Advanced System Care (clean registry).
<This step may be optional, but I did it...>

If any files do not delete then any services that are using them must be stopped (this should not be a problem,
because the only services running are basic Windows Services... the Startup items
have been disabled. Make sure that all AV programs, firewall defense programs, Ad-aware program etc.
are disabled/turned off temporarily.

9) Run msconfig.exe and select Normal Boot. Reboot, Login, and make sure that AV programs are temporarily turned off.
10) Now you can run the Windows Live Installer, selecting the desired components and it should complete without issues.

This routine worked for me and did not require that I take the instructions offered by Microsoft which were to restore
my system and rerun the installer. If the msicuu.exe is run then this might work right off, but I wanted
to make sure that all traces of Windows Live were removed from my system before reinstalling...

The original installation failed because all traces of the previous Windows Live Platform could not be unistalled during
the installation routine. I had to uninstall these traces manually using the routine described in Steps 1-10 above.

Good Luck.

Ken Niebling