Vista - COD2 Uninstall Problem

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I recently installed
COD2 on Vista Home Premium. It worked like a champ... for awhile. After a few
weeks I was no longer able to connect to the Master Server in multiplayer
mode. I installed the 1.3 patch but was still unable to connect. I read that
it is recommended to install each patch in order. This sounded reasonable so
I uninstalled COD2 and this is where I run into a problem.

When I launch COD2 to install, the installer menu only offers the option to
uninstall the application. I have completely uninstalled the application and
all associated file folders and files, including game.ini. In addition;

- ensured that it is not present in the registry
- installed MS Installer Clean Up to ensure there are no COD2 Files present
there
- disabled Windows Defender

I have been working with activision but after 5 exchanges with them, there
seems to be no resolution to this issue. Someone suggested to me that Windows
Defender could be the culprit due to a .dll conflict and that he has been
instructed in the past to re-install defender (on XP) to resolve the issue.
This, however, is not an option for me since Defender is now part of the
Vista OS.

Has anyone else had this issue? If so, did you find a way to resolve this?
It's really too bad as I enjoyed COD2 when I was running XP.

Any help is appreciated.