Can't uninstall Opera 9.64 - or repair or reinstall

I run Opera 9.64 on Windows 7 x64 RC. It's been fine till this week, but now my menus have gone funny (e.g. blank lines in the Help dropdown, and no 'Synchronize' in the File menu).

So I decided to uninstall and reinstall. But when I say 'uninstall Opera' from Add/Remove Programs, I get: 'The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable' -- although the 'Use Source' box points to a folder my local C (not network) drive. (Which doesn't have 'opera installer.msi' in it.)


If I click OK, a Windows Installer dialog tells me that the path 'c:\users\mary\appdata\local\temp\_isD1B1\opera installer.msi cannot be found', and asks me to find the installation package and install opera 9.64 from there.

The same thing happens if I try to install it (even to a different drive), or repair it.

I don't have a CD for it. *I can't find the .msi anywhere on my HDs. So I can't install Opera, or uninstall it, or repair it.


I downloaded the windows installer Cleanup tool, but I don't know if it runs on Windows 7. Besides, it alarmingly says I might have to reinstall all my programs if I run it - which would take many days!

If necessary, I could delete all Opera folders on the C: drive, and remove all Opera entries from the registry. But I don't want to do edit the registry so drastically if there's another way.


Any suggestions? (I posted a version of this query in the Opera forums, but have had only one suggestion, to reinstall Opera over the existing installation, and that didn't work.)

Thanks,

Mary

I've figured it out. First I deleted all Opera folders in Program Files (x86) and Users. Then I deleted all Opera-related files elsewhere on C:, e.g. a number in Windows subfolders such as c:\windows\installer.

Since the Windows installer was still demanding a copy of opera installer.msi, I created a copy in my laptop. I had Opera installed there, but the .msi wasn't on the drive - Opera deletes it after finishing the installation. But I was able to create it by starting a repair install from Add/Remove programs; stopping at repair/remove screen, going to my \local\temp\... folder, and copying the whole folder to a safe place. Then I cancelled the repair, and copied the folder containing the .msi file to the \local\temp\... folder in my desktop.

I rebooted and ran the Opera install file. This time, it ran.

I backed up the new installation, and copied back my customized .ini files, one by one, opening Opera after each. I found that one was corrupted, and replaced it with the vanilla file.

It was sort of fun, in a way, figuring out how to get the Windows Installer working again. But it seems to me it shouldn't be necessary.

I'd still like to know what I should have done. Surely there's an approved procedure for removing or repairing Windows installers that won't uninstall or reinstall?

Mary