Windows installer problems/Icon issues

Hello all!

I find Windows Vista to be very stable, but can I please alert you all to a rare Vista bug that I commonly see mis-diagnosed on this or any forum. This bug crops up in a post about once a month on this forum. I believe that everyone here should be able to recognise it, and be able to offer advice. Unfortunately, the only resilient solution is a Clean Install, although most users who experience the symptoms will accept this verdict.

Here are the symptoms that a user will detect:

• No shortcut icons show
• No shortcuts work (The item '{name}' has been changed or moved. Do you want to delete this shortcut? )
• Almost no application run. The issue will be Windows Installer configuring the product, and then asking for the location of the .exe or .tmp. Neither of the locations found are correct. In fact, the file no longer exists on the computer, although read on for the cause
• However, if one re-installs a program, the shortcut for that program works correctly forever, and the program opens normally.
• All of this occurs overnight. Switch on in the morning, and all is not well! Not well at all!

Please be very aware of this! It sticks out like a sore thumb! Please try and remember this post whenever this issue next appears!

The Cause:

The root cause is not known, but the cause of the symptoms are. The issue is that the %WinDir%\Installer\ folder has been emptied. Completely emptied!

This folder stores shortcut icons, .exe and .dll icon holders, and shortcut information. This is why shortcuts no longer work.

This folder also stores all installers for all applications. This explains why any program has a Windows Installer configuration bar, and then asks for the location - the location no longer exists. The files and folders in this folder have been completely deleted. They are not in the Recycle Bin, and recovery of them is impossible.

If you re-install a program, it puts stuff into the %WinDir%\Installer folder - repopulating it. This is why all reinstalled programs work. Can I make it crystal clear! This folder empties once. It does not keep emptying. Anything put into this folder after the incident remains.

As I said above, the root cause of this emptying is un-known.

How to confirm this problem:

Get the user to check their %WinDir%\Installer folder (usually C:\Windows\Installer) and see what is inside. Please remember that this folder:

• Is a System Folder, and Hidden, so you will need a speech similar to the following: Please use OPTION TWO, steps 1, 2, 4 and 6 of this tutorial:Hidden Files and Folders

• Will re-generate a few things, and the user will probably have re-installed something, so don't expect no items, expect few items. Have few is few? On a normal system, re-installed about 1-2 months ago, you will probably get a total of about 250 files and folders in this folder. A little more or a little less means nothing, but less than 100 probably means trouble, but is just about possible. Use common sense. 10-50 is pretty certainly trouble.

The Fix:

Unfortunately, there is no specific fix. Programs can be re-installed, all shortcuts deleted (and remember that this includes All Programs) and eventually the system will be back to nearly normal. I will not recommend this. I would strongly suggest that a Clean Install is a better cause of action. Unfortunately, Clean install is required, Repair Install will solve nothing.

Of course, a System Restore should be attempted, although usually it will either fail to initialize, or fail to complete.

The reason I know so much about this is because it actually happened to me about a year ago. From this, I managed to do a lot of research on it, as I tried to find out what I could about it. I actually managed a manual fix of about the easier program: Quicktime. Using another computer, with shortcut property analysis, and careful program version checking, and copying, and I had to manually type out many CLSIDs by hand, as they came from Property Windows, and could not be copy and pasted. The fix was very complicated, required another computer with the same program version on it, and was incredibly un-economical on time at about 20 per program. Quicktime was easy as well. 1 installer; 1 shortcut; 20 minutes. Microsoft Office is vastly bigger. Are you willing to spend 20 minutes x (400/2) programs and shortcuts. That works out at 4000 minutes for a complete repair. That is 66 hours, 40 minutes! No thank you!

I hope that I have managed to teach to you a bit about this rare, but important issue. I have seen quite a few misdiagnosis, which often end in the correct solution: Clean Install. However, I feel that I should try to teach to you all about it. I hope you all found this useful. If you did, maybe I should write a few more of these, on similar topics, about things that I feel are not known by quite enough. Maybe!

Thanks!

Richard

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elcastellano said:

Thank you, gracias, merci beaucoup, danke schön, wado, doumo arigatou gozaimasu, gratias, grazie, xièxiè, if only I could express my thanks a million times over, and in a million languages!

You don't know how much that helped me. Thank you very much.

And if you don't mind helping me with one more thing, and I should have put this in the last post, but my office files icons do that wierd grey square, little piece paper icons inside it design, at least that's the best i can describe it. Any thoughts?

Again thanks ahead, I'm working on learning to program, my minors going to be computer science, so yeah, but I'm still not there, and my knowlegde is paltry at best, and what I do know, is from trial and error and exploring my computers dark inner workings, I do know more than the average bear, but still learning.

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