Vista - How Can We Remove the Search Enhancement Pack Popup?

My father-in-law downloaded Windows Live Mail for his Dell XP Home box this
week. Most of the installation was uneventful. However, when the screen
popped up with 3 options (I think it was a toolbar, search options to mesh
with IE, and something else, he had a brown-out and his computer shut down.
After the computer came back up, Windows Live Mail installed okay. But now,
every time he reboots his computer, he gets a Microsoft (Windows Explorer)
page that loads with Search Enhancement Pack as it's only file. He can
close that page and then use his computer normally, but the popup returns on
every boot. One search for this problem said that Choice Guard helps set
those 3 Live installation options. The brown-out apparently corrupted the
process.
--------------------------
Comment (supposedly) from MS employee: Choice Guard is a piece of code that
is responsible for setting the users homepage and search default if they
chose those options during setup. Typically, this is a simple task of
writing a value into a registry key.

However, several of our competitors install a "service" that is always
running on your machine that prevents the registry key from being changed,
even if that is what the user decided to do. So Choice Guard looks for the
presence of those apps that might be preventing the user's choice from being
carried out and works around their block to set the search default.

It only does this one time. If the user attempts to change it again, either
manually or programmatically, they are free to do so.
----------------------------
In searching for a solution, I found lots of other people have this problem
with recurring Search Enhancement Pack popups. Some occurred during Windows
Live Mail installations, but most resulted from Windows Live Messenger
installations. I tried the following solutions that were suggested by some
of the MVPs.

We brought up Task Manager, highlighted the seaport.exe entry, and then
stopped that process. We looked for Search Enhancement Pack or Seaport in
Add/Remove programs - none found, so could not uninstall. Then went to
Administrative Tools, Services, double-clicked the Seaport process,
"stopped" that service and then changed the startup type to "Manual". We
then used Windows Explorer to find the Search Enhancement Pack in the
Program Files and deleted that folder. After that, we rebooted, and the
Microsoft screen came back up. It was empty, but still loaded, so I
restored the Search Enhancement Pack from the Recycle Bin.

I saw other "solutions" that recommended using the registry key for Choice
Guard to uninstall that program, so ran regedit, and browsed to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software, Microsoft, Search Enhancement Pack, Choice
Guard, and copied the key under "product id" to the clipboard. Closed the
registry and typed this command in the run box "Msiexec /x
{8FFC5648-FAF8-43A3-BC8F-42BA1E275C4E}" without the quotes. When the enter
key was pressed, the uninstaller apparently worked. However, the popup
screen returned on the next boot.

Some people had apparent success with these actions. Others have not.
Another group of folks got temporary relief, then had a recurrence of the
Search Enhancement Pack popup after a subsequent Windows Update. Other
people uninstalled all of the Windows Live Applications, but still got the
Search Enhancement Pack popup on every boot. Anybody have suggestions?

Thanks,
Jim

Iirc, Windows Live Essentials does not create a new System Restore point thus a prior pre-brownout Windows created restore point
may still be available.

Other options beside using Windows System Restore...
- Was a backup image e.g Acronis True Image or Ghost created that is available for a full restoration prior to the brown out.

--
...winston
ms-mvp mail

"Jim" <jim@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:uPmfiE#6JHA.1196@xxxxxx

Another post had this:
Go to add/remove programs and remove the MSN toolbar.
--
Ron Sommer


"Jim" <jim@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uPmfiE#6JHA.1196@xxxxxx

Winston, thanks for your post. Since he has the XP Home version, I don't
think restore points are available.
Jim

"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Orr$7m$6JHA.1764@xxxxxx

Thanks Ron. I saw that suggestion a time or two, and asked him to do so.
But just after my original post, I lost MY Internet Connection because of
some type of 3rd-party software interference. Did a full reinstall, so have
been unable to follow up for a few days. Sorry for the slow response. If
removing the toolbar works, I'll post back.

Thanks,
Jim

"Ron Sommer" <rsommer@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O8dZtIB7JHA.5524@xxxxxx

Restore points are available in Home and Professional
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084


--
...winston
ms-mvp mail

"Jim" <jimx@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:uZnyJEV7JHA.2656@xxxxxx

Thanks, Winston. I'll check out options on his system tonight.
"...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u5$0jVW7JHA.6136@xxxxxx