Windows Installer Problem

Some times I got anoying error messages when I tried to open some applications such as VB6.0. The message is like a dialog window with the message:

Setup is aborting now. Cannot detect file: mediainfo.ini


This is caused by Windows Installer when I tries to find some files based on Registry settings. For example, I removed some binary files which were installed by Windows Installer but I could not find Uninstaller for those files or I could not run uninstaller successfully.

Here are some steps to avoid these messages:

Locate missing files

• Open Event Viewer from Administration Tools.
• View property for the most recent warning messages in Application node, and make a note of missing file, for example, "C:\MyTools\Bin\Interop.Utility.dll".

Search for Registry settings for missing files

• Open RegEdit
• Locate to "My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer"
• Search for the file with path found above. Note, do not include drive like "C:" in the search string.
• You should find a key like this: "...\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\D1311F8CC3D78BB42BCF6A". Under this one you will find a key Item with a value like "C?\\MyTools\Bin\Interop.Utility.dll".

Change Reistry Settings

• What I do first is to find the missing files and copy them to a folder like "C:\MissingFiles\Installer\"
  
• Then I change the registry key item's value to "C?\MissingFiles\Installer\Interop.Utility.dll".

After I change all the registry items for these missing files, I will not get warning message any more.

I am not sure if I should remove these registry keys or not. For safe purpose, I try to find missing files and udpate registry instead.