Windows 7 Well, it appears I've managed to cripple my Windows 7 Ultimate!

[philippo]

A few weeks ago I decided to do a clean install of a new (to me, anyway) version of Adobe Photoshop (I actually had two prior versions of Photoshop on my hard drive, so starting with the oldest one, I used "Revo Uninstaller" to remove them)

I've used "Revo" for years because after it uses a program's native uninstaller it seemed to do such a good job of scanning and deleting leftover registry entries and other program fragments that are scattered all over your hard drive. One can set the scanning level to either easy, moderate, or deep. This time I used the "deep" setting

The earlier version of Adobe Photoshop uninstalled without a hitch, but after removing the second version, the above-mentioned scanning procedure took an incredibly long time. I went ahead anyway and deleted all the entries it had found.

Then the troubles began…

I tried to open MSOffice Word, but I couldn't open any documents – I got the following error message:

An error has occurred in the script on this page
Line: 5
Character: 5
Error: Library not Registered
Code: 0
URL: res://C:\Windows\system32\mmcndmgr.dll/views.js

Screenshot:
Link Removed

Then I went to the Windows 7 "Add or Remove Programs" to see if I could "fix" Word and the "repair" option was not available. That's when I found out that "Windows Installer" was not working correctly.

Error message:

Problem with shortcut

The Windows installer service could not be accessed. This can occur if the Windows installer is not correctly installed. Contact your Support Personnel for Assistance

Link Removed

After that, I attempted to re install Microsoft Office and generated this:

Description:
Setup did not complete successfully. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: Office12Setup
Problem Signature 01: {10140000-0F00-0000-0000--0000000FF1CE}
Problem Signature 02: 14.0.4734.1000
Problem Signature 03: X
Problem Signature 04: FileNotFound
Problem Signature 05: X
Problem Signature 06: X
Problem Signature 07: X
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional information about the problem:
LCID: 1033

A search on the Microsoft website for "installer.exe" proved fruitless and their online “fix” didn't work either, so -- knowing I have numerous “Restore” points I decided to attempt a System Restore. That's when I found the next error, quoted below:

SYSTEM RESTORE:
System restore does not appear to be functioning correctly on this system

It seemed the only recourse was to restore one of my daily backups or even a recent System Image...but an attempt at that only got the last error quoted below:

BACK UP:
The backup application could not start due to an internal error.
Class not registered (0X80040154)

A volume shadow copy service component encountered an unexpected error. Check the application event log for more information. (0x80042302)

So that's where I am now – TOTALLY stranded (Also Known As: F****D!!) – I can't go forward, can't go back.
I'm writing this from the

Windows 8 Release Preview
Evaluation copy. Build 8400

Which I installed months ago in a separate partition on this same disk (actually I'm somewhat surprised that this “Windows 8 Trial” version is even still working

Any help would be VERY appreciated!!!
Thanks,
philippo

 

[Saltgrass]

The first thing you might try is running the System File Checker to see if any Windows files can be repaired. Open an administrative command prompt window and type SFC /scannow and let it finish to see if it can repair the problem.

If it won't run from an online place, try running it offline:

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/run-sfc-offline-windows-7-vista/

 

[philippo]

Tried both methods of running scannow -- the only result is:

Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service.

 

[Saltgrass]

Someone else may have a better idea, but it seems we need to check what installer is or is not capable of running. If you open the Services Panel (services.msc) and check for a Windows Installer, and Windows Module Installer, we might find out.

Look for the two services and they should be set to manual start and may or may not be running. If they are not running, can you Start them, or do you get an error message? If they will not start, go to the properties and check the dependencies tab then see if those are running, or can be started. Maybe you will find some service, like RPC that is compromised and will not start.

The Windows Module Installer is the TrustedInstaller, which is essential to Windows Updates and the SFC..

Does Revo uninstaller keep a recovery log or can it replace what it removed?

 

[philippo]

Well, I'm feeling pretty stupid about not remembering that Revo UnInstaller makes a restore point before it uninstalls a program. I did "undo" the Photoshop uninstall, and that did solve a couple of problems (for instance, Microsoft office now is working correctly). But System Restore and Backup are still broken. Now I'm wondering exactly what the differences between Revo's Restore Point (which works!), and Windows Restore Point (Still not functioning). I'm also wondering which of the 130,000+ registry entries that Revo replaced was the culprit for my cyber-breakdown.

I will look into your suggestion about checking the services later this morning. Thanks,

 

[philippo]

Someone else may have a better idea, but it seems we need to check what installer is or is not capable of running. If you open the Services Panel (services.msc) and check for a Windows Installer, and Windows Module Installer, we might find out.

Look for the two services and they should be set to manual start and may or may not be running. If they are not running, can you Start them, or do you get an error message? If they will not start, go to the properties and check the dependencies tab then see if those are running, or can be started. Maybe you will find some service, like RPC that is compromised and will not start.

The Windows Module Installer is the TrustedInstaller, which is essential to Windows Updates and the SFC..

Does Revo uninstaller keep a recovery log or can it replace what it removed?

When I open services.msc neither of these two show up...I cannot find any instances of any "installer" service.

As far as Revo goes, yes -- it does set a restore point before any uninstall...I'm feeling pretty stupid about not remembering that!

I did "undo" the Photoshop uninstall, and that did solve a couple of problems (for instance, Microsoft Office now is working correctly). However, System Restore and Backup are still broken. Now I'm wondering exactly what the difference is between Revo's Restore Point (which works), and all the Windows Restore Points that I had (which are still not showing). I'm also wondering which of the 130,000+ registry entries that Revo originally deleted (but now has "put back") caused my cyber-trounle.

 

[Saltgrass]

The Windows Installer service is msiexec.exe located in the Windows\System32 folder. Do you have it and if you double click it does it do anything.

The Windows Module Installer is TrustedInstaller.exe and located in the Windows\servicing folder. Is it there?

Check this link to see if it might be relevant.

Error

 

[philippo]

The Windows Installer service is msiexec.exe located in the Windows\System32 folder. Do you have it and if you double click it does it do anything.

Yes it is there. It also seems to be working correctly: clicking opens a window with the following dialog:

Windows ® Installer. V 5.0.7601.17514

msiexec /Option <Required Parameter> [Optional Parameter]

Install Options
</package | /i> <Product.msi>
Installs or configures a product
/a <Product.msi>
Administrative install - Installs a product on the network
/j<u|m> <Product.msi> [/t <Transform List>] [/g <Language ID>]
Advertises a product - m to all users, u to current user
</uninstall | /x> <Product.msi | ProductCode>
Uninstalls the product
Display Options
/quiet
Quiet mode, no user interaction
/passive
Unattended mode - progress bar only
/q[n|b|r|f]
Sets user interface level
n - No UI
b - Basic UI
r - Reduced UI
f - Full UI (default)
/help
Help information
Restart Options
/norestart
Do not restart after the installation is complete
/promptrestart
Prompts the user for restart if necessary
/forcerestart
Always restart the computer after installation
Logging Options
/l[i|w|e|a|r|u|c|m|o|p|v|x|+|!|*] <LogFile>
i - Status messages
w - Nonfatal warnings
e - All error messages
a - Start up of actions
r - Action-specific records
u - User requests
c - Initial UI parameters
m - Out-of-memory or fatal exit information
o - Out-of-disk-space messages
p - Terminal properties
v - Verbose output
x - Extra debugging information
+ - Append to existing log file
! - Flush each line to the log
* - Log all information, except for v and x options
/log <LogFile>
Equivalent of /l* <LogFile>
Update Options
/update <Update1.msp>[;Update2.msp]
Applies update(s)
/uninstall <PatchCodeGuid>[;Update2.msp] /package <Product.msi | ProductCode>
Remove update(s) for a product
Repair Options
/f[p|e|c|m|s|o|d|a|u|v] <Product.msi | ProductCode>
Repairs a product
p - only if file is missing
o - if file is missing or an older version is installed (default)
e - if file is missing or an equal or older version is installed
d - if file is missing or a different version is installed
c - if file is missing or checksum does not match the calculated value
a - forces all files to be reinstalled
u - all required user-specific registry entries (default)
m - all required computer-specific registry entries (default)
s - all existing shortcuts (default)
v - runs from source and recaches local package
Setting Public Properties
[PROPERTY=PropertyValue]

Consult the Windows ® Installer SDK for additional documentation on the
command line syntax.

Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Portions of this software are based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.​

The Windows Module Installer is TrustedInstaller.exe and located in the Windows\servicing folder. Is it there?

Yes, that file is also there in the servicing folder.

On another note, while I was exploring the services folder, I found that the shadowcopy entry was disabled. I changed it to "automatic start", rebooted, and attempted to open System Restore. It finally worked -- but for some reason, the most recent restore point is last April.

Any ideas on where all the recent restore points are hiding out?

Oh, and -- thanks for your help!! Things seem on the mend...