[tex-live] Windows XP X64 uninstall goes badly...

[Beuthe, Thomas]

UNRESTRICTED | ILLIMITÉ

Follow up report to this issue.

(For the record: during all of this I am logged in as admin,
and I am installing into the default area c:\texlive\2009)

Original install was done from DVD.
 
The next time I tried installing from a copy of the
install disk in hard drive to help speed things up.
(Otherwise it take almost 2 hours to install in this system.)
 
On second install, everything went smoothly as before,
except this time, TeXLive was not inserted into the path.
 
On uninstall, everything was properly removed, except
for all of the executables like last time.
I have no idea why that should be happening.
I am logged in as administrator and can easily delete
all of the leftover files manually after the uninstall.
 
On the thought that perhaps some other process was
perhaps interfering with the install and uninstall,
I rebooted the machine and stripped it down,
turning off literally everything non-essential.
Unplugged it from the internet, turned off
COMODO software firewall, and removed all
running process associated with the virus checker.
 
Then installed, rebooted, uninstalled.
As before, no PATH on install, and
all executables left over after uninstall.
 
I did the same thing with another machine that
I have running XP Professional (32 bit) and
on that machine everything installed and
uninstalled perfectly.  I compared the file
attributes on both machines and there is
no difference.
 
Any idea why Windows XP X64 would do something
this strange?  It's not as if I have any problems
on install or uninstall for any other software
I have...
 
Man all of this installing and uninstalling testing has
cost me an entire night.  If there is any more information
I could provide to help tracing this problem,
please let me know.
 
I also have a machine running Windows 7, 64-bit version.
I wonder what would happen on that machine.
 
Perhaps I can test it tomorrow.
 
Thomas

-----Original Message-----
From: T T [mailto:t34www at googlemail.com] 
Sent: August 10, 2010 6:56 AM
To: Beuthe, Thomas
Cc: tex-live at tug.org
Subject: Re: [tex-live] Windows XP X64 uninstall goes badly...

On 10 August 2010 03:30, Beuthe, Thomas <beuthet at aecl.ca> wrote:
>
> As hinted in my previous mail message, I tried uninstalling TeXLive installation from
> a Windows XP X64 machine (which is really a re-branded server 2003), and I must say
> I'm somewhat less than pleased.  The uninstaller refused to removed all executable files
> (basically all .bat, .exe, .dll, and .cmd files and their associated directory trees).
> So I'm left with 817 files that were not uninstalled, and to boot the TeXLive 2009
> Entry in Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs is still in there, and I can't even remove
> the package entry using the windows install cleanup utility program because the install
> was never made using Windows Installer in the first place.  The desktop entries are
> all still there, along with the Start -> programs entry for TeXLive.

The only problem that comes to my mind is file permissions.  Was
installation for all users (admin)?  Did you install under
%ProgramFiles%?  TL version (NET or DVD)?


> My first impulse would be to delete the remaining files and desktop entries, and remove the install entry directly
> in the registry through regedit.  Is that advisable?  Editing the registry directly always
> faintly gives me the creeps.  The possibility of REALLY mucking up the system is always there.
>
> This is just too ugly.
> Has anyone else had this type of experience or am I just "special" somehow?

I don't recall a report of this sort.

The uninstallation process goes like this:
- remove shortcuts, file assocs, etc., for each installed package
- remove TL from the search PATH
- unregister uninstaller
- delete TL directories

Since most of TL files are gone in your case, the installer won't work
any more and you probably have to do the remaining steps manually.

Tomek

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