Hi Paul - This is my standard "spiel" about install problems such as yours.
Please read it carefully. You may want to print it out.
In any of these install fixes, to quote Steve Cochran, "It is essential that
no "interfering" software be running during the install and subsequent
reboot. This is particularly true of antiviral software. Most or many of
the corrupt installs involve installations while AV or other software is
loaded and these prevent the ability of the setup process to upgrade dlls,
and consequently installations fail or are incomplete." When you get to the
point of doing the install in any of the following fixes, "Go to Start | Run
and type msconfig. Then disable all startup items." Another program which
can be used for this purpose is EndItAll2, available here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,,s=1478&a=13909,00.asp In addition, I
would suggest disabling ALL Norton software, particularly NAV, NIS, System
Doctor and/or the Protected Recycle Bin, if present. See here for some
general help:
Q256219 - OLEXP: How to Manually Uninstall and Reinstall Outlook Express 5:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q256/2/19.asp
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows
XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318378
See these two Microsoft articles for lists of products known to interfere
with installations:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;q241234 and
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q241783.
Also, check here to get the latest version of the Windows Installer
appropriate for your OS:
for Windows 95, 98, and Me:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=32831
for Windows NT 4.0 and 2000
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=32832
See for more info:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=kb;en-us;Q305496
In all cases, I assume that you will be using ie6setup.exe in the
c:\%SystemRoot%\Windows Update Setup Files for any re-install. If your OS
is NT, then you MUST be logged on as Administrator both to install and for
the first reboot for any of the following fixes. Based on my own
experience, I believe this is also a requirement for Win2k, but MS does not
say it's required in that case in the ReadMe. However, in Q293907 the
following does appear: "You must have administrative privileges to install
and uninstall Internet Explorer 6 in Windows NT and Windows 2000. This
includes having administrative privileges the first time you start your
computer after you install or uninstall Internet Explorer 6."
There are three things you might want to check:
Fix # 1: Try running ie6setup in Safe Mode. This was suggested by
Microsoft Support to one correspondent and worked for him after he had tried
the fixes described below. If it doesn't for you then try the following.
Fix # 2: First, make sure in Windows Explorer/Tools/FolderOptions/View
that you show hidden and system files and show extensions.
Look in your c:\windows\inf folder and see if you find any files named
oemxx.inf which have a length of 0 (zero), where the xx can be any number.
There could be potentially many thousands. If you do, you need to erase
these. To do this, first select the c:\windows\inf folder, then hit Search.
In the Search pane on the left, enter oem*.inf and down at the bottom click
Size and At Most and 1 (one). Then do Search. When it finishes, you should
have all of the zero length oemxx.inf files listed in the right pane along
with possibly some of size 1K. Do CNTL A to select all of them. Now hold
down CNTL while you click on (de-select) all of those at the top that are
1K, so the only the 0K size files are left selected. Now hold down SHIFT
and click DELETE to delete the zero length oemxx.inf files without sending
them to the Recycle Bin. It will take some time if you've a lot of these
files, so be patient. You'll know when it's done. Symantec's System
Doctor is the usual culprit, but other programs can also cause this if
they're running when you do an install, particularly an install of system
software, so be sure to disable any such whenever you do an install.
Now for both Fix#2 and Fix#3 re-start your computer into DOS using a boot
floppy if necessary and run Scandisk C:, fixing any errors. If you're not
NT or Win2k, also run Scanreg /fix. Re-boot to Windows Safe mode and defrag
your computer (which will also probably take a little time), and try your
install again from Safe mode.. If it works, fine.
Fix # 3: If not, or if you didn't have such zero length oemxx.inf type
files to start with, try the following. Find the c:\program files\internet
explorer\uninstall information folder (It may be named something slightly
different depending on your operating system, for example, just Uninstall in
WinME.) It probably will be hidden, and you will have to un-hid it. Right
click on the folder, select properties, then un-tick the Hidden attribute.
(If you don't have this folder, then create an empty one named: c:\program
files\internet explorer\uninstall information - now try your install again
in Safe mode, re-selecting all components, even those already bolded. See
below.)
Now create a new empty folder and call it something like "IE Delete Backup".
Move the contents of the \uninstall information folder to the new folder you
created. (Just the contents - leave the old folder there.) Now try the
install again from the start in Safe mode, re-selecting all components, even
those already bolded, that you want using the Advanced option, and see if
this works. It has in many, many cases, but not all. If it doesn't, you
can just restore the files you saved in "IE Delete Backup". Let us know how
you make out, so that if this doesn't help, perhaps someone else can suggest
something else for you. Regards, Jim Byrd
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
