Noobie did a dum thing.....

[Rick03038]

Hi everyone,
i come from the Mac world and had a pc built for gaming. Now for my dum thing..... I installed Turning Point the other day and when I started to play it the screen came up blue ( I am using my big screen dlp as a monitor ). I realize now that happened because the tv didn't recognize the resolution the games are shipped in and I needed to hook up a smaller 22" so i could change the res to 1920x1080. Well anyway...I dragged the folder to the trash and emptied the trash, the way you delete on a Mac and tried to re-install the game. When I do that it tells me the game is installed and won't re-install. I know now I should have gone into control panel...programs...uninstall. I look there and the program shows being there but it won't let me uninstall it. It asks me if I want to remove all parts of the program, i click yes and it says that the program was inturrupted and did not uninstall. Any ideas on how I can delete/uninstall this so i can re-install it??
I kinda confused and I just wanna kill people :D

Thanks,
Rick
Ah......Only if they would have GOOD games for Macs

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Reinstall the game to fix the uninstall. Uninstall to remove it from Add/Remove programs.

 

[Rick03038]

Thats the problem, when i go to reinstall the game it says it wont because it is allready installed. When i go to uninstall it, it wont because the uninstall get "interuppted".
I was going to run reg seaker when i get home and see if that cleans it up. If i do a search for the game it doesnt find anything.

 

[roy69]

try a program called ccleaner.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

CCleaner can wreck Vista. I will see if I can find the link to the Windows installer cleaner tool.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

 

[pweegar]

SCSIraidGuru,
have you actually seen ccleaner mess up Vista or are you just trying to cause fear???? Sorry, I use ccleaner on two vista based pcs and have NEVER had a problem. In fact the latest version is vista compatible.

Rick03038,
What you may need to do is open the system registry, back it up (Export), then do a search for Turning Point or maybe the games producer. Delete all instances you find. The rerun ccleaner/your fav. system registry cleaner. Then you should be able to re-install the game.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

I have heard from several users on other forums about it doing strange things to the registry in Vista x64. You have to be careful cleaning out a registry.

 

[Spd2Last]

I was about to go to sleep, but I had to comment here. I do not recommend following pweegar's advice on editing the registry. You will more than likely do more damage to your computer than good. Do try out what SCSI suggested with the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility as I have also used this and know it to be a pretty useful utility.

Good luck

 

[roy69]

I have heard from several users on other forums about it doing strange things to the registry in Vista x64. You have to be careful cleaning out a registry.

I have used ccleaner with no problems. I would NOT recommend a program that I think would do damage to a users computer. If I did I would have no customers of my own. How people use software dictates how it works. Before allowing any program to change registry settings always review them yourself. A registry editing program is handy for finding errors, then you sort them out yourself.

 

[johngalt]

I have heard from several users on other forums about it doing strange things to the registry in Vista x64. You have to be careful cleaning out a registry.

I have used ccleaner with no problems. I would NOT recommend a program that I think would do damage to a users computer. If I did I would have no customers of my own. How people use software dictates how it works. Before allowing any program to change registry settings always review them yourself. A registry editing program is handy for finding errors, then you sort them out yourself.

I highlighted the key parts - and yet I bet most people never bother to look at them.

Th problem manifests from the fact that too many people don't bother to RTFM - they run it, think that everything is OK and *poof* they've hosed their systems.

Then they go crying about it on various forums: "CCleaner hosed my computer, and I know it wasn't my fault b/cuz I am h4XoR 1337!"

I don't have a problem recommending such things to people either - but it depends upon a persons skill level. If they are very new to to game, then I am not just going to recommend that they use a certain product or do a certain thing. I am going to walk them through the ***steps*** required.

By assuming that everyone is at a certain technical proficiency with their computer, you're leaving the door open to having a n00b hose their computer. For example, if a n00b were having trouble with some sort of install, and all I did was post "clean the registry and do the install again - and disable UAC before" then that user would probably be lost - and may ask back to have instructions, but just as likely may try to search themselves to find the answer.

If they were to search and find instructions on using CCleaner that did not necessarily relate to their own system, they could, in fact, hose their system.

In an Interface Development class I took a while back, the general guideline for writing technical manuals was to keep the language at an 8th grade level. That means simple language, guided steps, and pictures. Without those, it gets hard.

Then again, it gets hard supporting 40,000 n00b each with their own question - and even worse those that haven't figured out how to use Google yet and keep posting questions here over and over and over....

It's a fine line - but telling someone to do something that is beyond their capabilities can lead to bigger messes.

 

[pweegar]

I was about to go to sleep, but I had to comment here. I do not recommend following pweegar's advice on editing the registry. You will more than likely do more damage to your computer than good. Do try out what SCSI suggested with the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility as I have also used this and know it to be a pretty useful utility.

Good luck

If your careful, your not going to damage the ewgistry. That is why I recommended exporting (backing up) the system registry before he does anything. IF a mistake is made, it's a fairly simple matter of importing the back up and be back to where he was before any changes were made.

I will also say that using an un-installer/registry cleaner, etc., by itself isn't always a done deal. In fact I find too many times registry entries get left that should have been removed. And I've seen way to many programs not re-install because there were old entries left in the system registry.

In all the years I've been involved with windows, I've never had a problem when manually editing the registry. Maybe I've just been lucky. Maybe I also know what I am doing (at least I'd like to think so).

 

[johngalt]

If your careful, your not going to damage the ewgistry. That is why I recommended exporting (backing up) the system registry before he does anything. IF a mistake is made, it's a fairly simple matter of importing the back up and be back to where he was before any changes were made.

Provided, of course, that your regedit doesn't hose your system / render it inoperable. Otherwise, it isn't so easy to simply import it.

In all the years that *I* have been involved with Windows, I have seen more than a few b0rked installs because of a simple mistake, or not understanding what really needed to be done - in some cases an import fixed the problem, but in more than a couple of cases even an ERUNT backup did not help....

*plus* with Vista you now have protected registry hives - and that leads to further complications.

I will wholeheartedly agree that a registry cleaner alone is never a good enough answer - but I will also say this - manual backups are probably the best thing you can get. Most people who need registry edits are those who have been infected with malware and those (like myself) who are constantly trying software, only to later dump them in favor of other software with better features.