Uninstall with Missing Files

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

HELP! Well I went and messed up pretty good this time. I was having trouble with this Virtual Pool game designed for W98, so I decided to just uninstall it and start over and reinstall it. Well I forgot that this game
got loaded in the ADD/REMOVE section and so I went ahead and deleted the entire file from
PROGRAM FILES on C drive to the RECYCLE BIN.
That wasn't so bad, but then I went ahead and deleted the entire RECYCLE BIN.

So when I clicked on uninstall in the ADD/REMOVE section a flag popped up and said that UNINSTALL will not continue cause it can't find the files.

I tried to reinstall anyway, but again was told to 1st uninstall and then reinstall.
Obviously this didn't work.

So, what do I do now? Is there another way to take Virtual Pool off the ADD/REMOVE list?
Can you go somewhere where all that RECYCLE
BIN stuff went to and get those files back?
I heard that even tho things have been deleted from RB, that stuff is still somewhere in the bowels of the PC.
I need help here, everyone.
Thanks in advance....Chip, Launch Specialist

Chris DeBarge · From: Boston, Mass

Chip,
You're pretty much up a creek once the stuff is gone from the recycle bin, although there is software available that can recover things running in DOS (one is called Lost & Found). These do work, but they're rather random and unreliable.

Try Regclean. Go Start-Run and type in REGCLEAN and let it do it's thing. Maybe this will remove any cobwebs of the program in Windows.

BTW, if you still have 95, you'll have to download Regclean from Microsoft.

Chris DeBarge · From: Boston, Mass

Also wanted to add that you can search for the ini file for your game. Probably called something like virtualpool.ini or vpool.cfg, depending on what the program is called. If you find one of these, delete it. But don't delete any other .ini or .cfg files! Hope this helps.

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Thanks Chris...I'll see what happens with your suggestions. I have W98. We don't live too far from one another.
Chip

[This message was edited by CHIP FOSSA on 04 March 2000 at 02:41 PM.]

Everett Cox · From: Marengo, OH, USA (deceased)

Chip -- the following was copied from ZDNET's help forum. Drop me an email if you have a problem getting the 'Powertoy.exe' file or installing some/all the tools in it.
..............

Remove the Removed
By Alfred Poor, Computer Shopper

Dear Alfred:

Windows 95 has an Add/Remove Software feature in the Control Panel that you can use to uninstall a program. But if you delete the program directly, such as within Windows Explorer, the program will still show up on the list in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, and you can't remove the program from the list because it has already been erased.

How do you remove the name of a program from that list? Should you reinstall the program and then delete it the "right" way? Do you have to go into the Registry and edit some arcane lines, or is the best solution simply to live with it?

Dan Gelfand
via e-mail

Dear Dan:

There are two relatively easy ways to get rid of these orphaned entries. The first is to edit the Registry, as you surmise. Note that editing the Registry is not for the faint of heart, because changes are immediate and it is not too difficult to make changes that will render your system unbootable. So proceed with caution if you choose this route. Choose Run from the Start menu, then type REGEDIT and press Enter. Use the Find command from the Edit menu and search for Uninstall. This should find the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall key. Delete the program you want from under this key, and it will be gone from the Add/Remove Programs list. This does not delete the program itself.

The easier way to the same end is to use TweakUI, a free utility offered by Microsoft as part of its PowerToys collection, which you can download for free from the Microsoft Web site. This program lets you change many of the Windows configuration settings that are not readily available otherwise (such as hiding certain drives from the My Computer window, or changing the list of items offered under New when you right-click on the desktop). It also lets you selectively remove programs from the Add/Remove Programs list.

Rich Paton · From: Santa Maria, CA.,

Actually, while you might be up the creek, there is one paddle, providing you haven't re-booted or re-started Windows. It involves going to the command line and using the obscure and relatively undocumented command
"lock" to lock the hard drive and facilitate an "Undelete". Now here's the caveat: I'm not certain what "Undelete" app would be suitable for use with 32-bit word length and Fat 32.
Does one of you true computer pros have some further info re: this? I know I used it once successfully on the first release of W95, with the old 3.11 undelete app, but at the time it was fat 12 0r fat 16, and nearly all files in W95 were old 16 bit, or a hex pattern, (e.g.):
3cef 0000 fcac 0000 3dac 0000... actually an old W3x 16 bit word, "filled" with alternating 0000 hex values, to get a 32-bit word length. I'll research the "lock" command syntax again, but I'm real hazy on what a good "undelete" app would be at this time!
BTW, the command syntax I read at the time was strongly worded as to the necessity to type "unlock" when done, in any case.

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Thanks, Everett and Rich. Seeing how I am
not all that skilled at PC stuff, I'll try for the TweakUI method.
I have a Western Digital 15.3GB hard drive
still in the box waiting for me to install it
and so I could probably get this Virtual Pool
installed on this slave E drive?
Chris...I talked with my B-I-L about REGCLEAN and he knows my expertise {or, lack thereof] and advised me not to go that route.
And after reading about it, above, well....
it looks scary allright. But thanks one and all, again.
Chips Ahoy

Rich Paton · From: Santa Maria, CA.,

Chip, et al,:
I was unable to find any definitive info on "undeleting in W9x", so far, but it seems obvious that someone somewhere must make an app that will recover inadvertently axed WhineDose files!
>
I did come up with a few more excellent resources on the web, for P.C./windows troubleshooting info, and Q & A's.
>
>
The Windows Annoyances Discussion Forum: http://www.annoyances.org/win98/features/forum.html
>
Windows 98 Megasite:
(If it ain't there, you probably don't
need it)!
http://www.cmpnet.com/win98
>
The Windows DLL Archive:
http://solo.abac.com/dllarchive/
>
Driver (source information) database:
http://www.windrivers.com/
>
Godspeed, ye hapless WinVictims!
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