When attempting to install the latest version of Boinc on a Windows 7 Box, I received the following error (image below)


Please advise :)

Did some searching. It's also a bad link in the Windows registry. Normally you could fix this with the Windows Installer Clean Up Tool, but that one's been discontinued. Instead you can try http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall.

Now if that doesn't work... come back and I'll point out the WICUT anyway. ;-)

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Microsoft Fix It removed references in the registry to Boinc, which I verified with Regedit, unfortunately the same error occurs during attempted installation. Also tried a fresh download of Boinc, resulting with the same error.

In that case, use the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility.

Run that on your computer.
The corrupt BOINC version shows up as either BOINC.msi or as a corrupt icon .msi (it'll be the top most option). Click on it to select it, then click Remove and Exit. You will need to reboot your computer now.

Then install the new version of BOINC. It should now work.

(Warning: Leave all other .msi files as they are, as else you have problems uninstalling other programs! )

(This version of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility works correctly in all 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows.)

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Thank you for the second suggestion, unfortunately it too was unsuccessful. The download location you provided was somewhat spammy, recommending the installation of additional spurious software, so i located a pure file from Microsoft and gave it a shot.

The program installed flawlessly, but did not list any Boinc Reference. However, there was an old MotoHelper App listed that I was able to get rid of :)

If anyone else would like a copy of the Windows Install Cleanup installation file, I will leave it Available Here for a few days, as it was difficult to find. It seems that Windows Fix It has replaced the Install Cleanup. They both seemed to work well, unfortunately they did not rectify the Boinc Installation Issue.

Download the exact version that used to be installed from http://BOINC.ssl.berkeley.edu/dl

Install that version.

Download and install the new version.

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BOINC WIKI

Had high hopes for your idea, but received the same error each time :/ I went all the way back through 2009 with no luck :( Heck of a thing, as I intentionally purchased an upgraded Nvidia card for this box... now it's just sitting idle :/

Is it possible that you have a corrupted download of the BOINC installer? Can you try re-downloading the BOINC installer and run it again?

So far I have tried redownloading the latest version, and as McLeod suggested, several previous versions of the installer to no avail.

I have also posted a request for help on the Microsoft Answers forum. So far no one has replied, but there are probably not many aware of what Boinc is :)

OK, I finally ran across the answer from a recommendation via the microsoft.answers forum which pointed to a solution on the Boinc.faq forum via mundayweb. I will copy and paste the final solution here so it is not lost, and in case anyone else runs across a similar problem, with a link at the end to the source.

Essentially it seems that all traces of the Boinc install needed to be removed from the system, which neither Microsoft "fix it" or the Windows Install Cleanup accomplished. There were a few registry entries and group entries that needed to be removed, with some referenching "Space Science Engineering" instead of just Boinc directly, which is why they did not appear when I searched for them in Regedit.

I completed all of the steps listed here for my particular system (Windows 7), and if you run across the same problem, and find that some steps fail, don't worry, as in the end it seems after running Windows "Fix It" and the Windows Install Cleanup, some of the steps where completed there, and did not have to be accomplished manually.

The pasted instructions are below, with a link at the end:

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First off you will have to remove your BOINC installation by going Start->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs->BOINC->Remove. If by chance you get an error message that the MSI file cannot be found, or that the network resource is unavailable, see this FAQ for options around that.

Once you have uninstalled BOINC, you can delete the left-over BOINC executable directory. Default paths for it can be found in this FAQ. Leave the BOINC Data directory alone for now. We'll come to that in point 4.

All of the points below and some more things are included in a batch file that I made that will automate the process. It will still assume you uninstalled BOINC through Add/Remove Programs prior to you starting it. See Point 5 for details.
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After you uninstalled BOINC through Start->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs, remnants of BOINC will still linger on your system. The following steps will remove these remnants completely. But we're starting with the first 3 steps that still allow you to reinstall BOINC 6 at a later date, or as a "clean solution" to get rid of possible account related bugs.

1. The User Accounts and Groups
To cleanup the newly created users and groups on anything else than Windows XP Home do the following:

(- Click on the 'Start' button).
- Right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage'.
- Expand the 'Local Users and Groups' tree node.
- Click on the Groups tree node.
- Delete the 'boinc_admins' group.
- Delete the 'boinc_users' group.
- Delete the 'boinc_projects' group.
- Click on the Users tree node.
- Delete the 'boinc_master' user account.
- Delete the 'boinc_project' user account.

Windows XP Home, Vista Home and 7 Home don't have the Local Users and Groups tree node, so here we have to do it differently.

- Click on the 'Start' button.
- Click on 'All Programs'.
- Click on '(Desktop-)Accessories'.
- Right-click on 'Command Prompt'.
- Choose 'Run as administrator' and confirm.
- In the command prompt window that opened, type:
-- net user boinc_master /delete (press Enter).
-- net user boinc_project /delete (press Enter).
-- net localgroup boinc_admins /delete (press Enter).
-- net localgroup boinc_projects /delete (press Enter).
-- net localgroup boinc_users /delete (press Enter).

2. Cleanup User Rights Assignments
To cleanup the newly assigned user rights do the following (again, only for all Windows version but Windows XP Home):

- Click on the 'Start' button.
(- Click on 'Settings').
(- Click on 'Control Panel').
- Launch the 'Administrative Tools' control panel applet.
- Launch the 'Local Security Policy' application.
- Expand the 'Local Policies' tree node.
- Click on the 'User Rights Assignment' node.

Open each user right that contains a boinc_master or boinc_project entry, and remove those from the lists.

Windows XP Home, Windows Vista Home and Windows 7 Home do not have the Local Security Policy. It may be possible that you can remove the entries the installer made from the registry, but it's at this point unknown where it puts these entries in the registry.

(The developers haven't come back to me about this, so I really don't know what the installer does with those entries. Perhaps it silently drops them).


3. Cleanup Setup Registry Entries
To cleanup the newly created registry entries do the following:

- Launch 'regedit.exe' from the Start\Run menu item.
- Expand the 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' entry.
- Expand the 'Software' entry.
- Expand the 'Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley' entry.
- Delete the 'BOINC Setup' entry.
- Delete the 'Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley' key.

- Go back to the 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' entry.
- Expand the 'SYSTEM' entry.
- Expand the 'CurrentControlSet' entry.
- Expand the 'Services' entry.
- Delete the 'BOINC' entry, if it exists.

- Go back to the 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' entry.
- Expand the 'Software' entry.
- Expand the 'Microsoft' entry.
- Expand the 'Windows' entry.
- Expand the 'CurrentVersion' entry.
- Expand the 'Run' entry.
- Delete 'boincmgr', if it exists.
- Delete 'boinctray', if it exists.

- Expand the 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER' entry.
- Expand the 'Software' entry.
- Expand the 'Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley' entry.
- Delete the 'BOINC Manager' entry.
- Delete the 'BOINC Screensaver' entry.
- Delete the 'Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley' entry.


Exit regedit.

Now then, if you really want to get rid of BOINC completely, you will need to remove the Data directory as well.

If you're just going for a reinstall, move the directory with all contents to C:\Program Files\BOINC\, where the installer can pick it up again. Else...

4. The Data Directory
By default BOINC installed the data directory in:

Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC\
Windows Vista/Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\BOINC\

These directories can be hidden, so make sure you allow for Show hidden files and folders.

Delete this directory and all files and sub-directories.

That will clean BOINC off your system. You can now reboot to get rid of the remnants still in volatile memory.

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link to original forum post
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OK, I finally ran across the answer from a recommendation via the microsoft.answers forum which pointed to a solution on the Boinc.faq forum via mundayweb. I will copy and paste the final solution here so it is not lost, and in case anyone else runs across a similar problem, with a link at the end to the source.

Always nice to find my FAQs being used by people. I never knew they were pointed out at the Microsoft forums, though. :-)

But, the FAQ you point out at the end isn't the original source of the text you copied. That's this one instead.

About it getting lost, I wouldn't know how. Not unless both Neil (Munday) and I decide to throw in the towel and stop this info-sharing. Until that time, it's going to get even better, as after the summer I'll be copying everything over to a (more open) Wiki.

In any way, glad that the solution worked for you and that the info was freely available. :-)

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Well ageless, I'm not sure what to take from your replies.

1. While I am grateful for your efforts, you mentioned two ways to solve the issue that were not it.

2. You state that the source is not what I referenced, however, that is the source I retrieved the post from. Why you felt this was necessary is, well not worth my time.

3. If you knew the correct answer, why not simply point to your original post, if it was yours?

4. Why did you feel your final post was necessary?

I have no idea what your point is, but I certainly have more important things to do. I simply left the text for the answer that worked for me, under a relevant Question & Answer section on the forums, as that answer solved the issue, where no other was given.

Thanks to everyone else that tried. I will leave the pure install of the Windows Install Cleanup utility up for awhile longer, as I have noticed quite a few downloads so far.

cheers...

Patrick:

You said you were pointed at a solution via the Microsoft Answers forum and the pointed you to the BOINC FAQ Service via Mundayweb.

What Jord/Ageless was telling you is that he runs the BOINC FAQ Service along with Munday. The link you were pointed to - the one you copied here to help everone - is not the original source of information. Jord proudly pointed you toward the original solution on his BOINC FAQ Service.

He likely didn't link to that particular solution because he was probably, like me, trying to fix the error. The solution you provided is how to completely remove BOINC and all it's remnants for a clean installation. While the solution you provided is likely the quicker option, most people in IT prefer to fix the problem more elegantly than blowing up the house to repair the doorway because we know we'll run into it again in the future.


That was the point of Jord's final post. Personally, I'm struggling to understand why you responded to him the way you did in your last post. It seems you were bothered/offended by Jord taking the credit when you apparently feel he doesn't deserve it. But he and several volunteers have written the documents you were pointed at (or at least the originals that everyone else copies). He does deserve the credit.

Addendum to what 'The Unnamed Person' said, the "Jorden" name you see on all those FAQs over there, that's me. The FAQ you pointed out at the bottom of your thread was number 119, but instead it needed to be 490. 119 deals with the solutions to removing the corruption of the BOINC install path, whereas 490 deals with completely uninstalling BOINC (as said before by 'TUP'). Just a simple clicking of the links will show that.

Look, I'm not mad at you, not even now after you apparently needed to blast me off this Earth for no apparent reason. Shrug, whatever. I also have better things to do with my time.

A warning about the Microsoft Install Clean Up Utility for those wanting to use it: Using this utility wrongly can severely corrupt your Windows. Do not use it, unless you know your way around Windows (advanced users) with your eyes closed.

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