Cannot deinstall VS 2003

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Armin Zingler - 31 Jan 2007 20:05 GMT

Hi,

I have a pretty urgent problem:

I have to deinstall VS 2003. During this process, this error occurs: "could
not find file: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\2e79bf.msi"

The file is really not there and I can't find it anywhere. Unfortunatelly,
the same error occurs when I try to do a repair installation.

Do I have any chance or do I have to reinstall the whole system? I can not
afford this currently at all.

Armin

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Armin Zingler - 31 Jan 2007 21:42 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Do I have any chance or do I have to reinstall the whole system? I
> can not afford this currently at all.

If found this one meanwhile:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824642/

I hope it will work...

Armin

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Dick Dawson - 20 Feb 2007 22:47 GMT

I also need to remove VS 2003. When I use "Add or Remove Programs" the
"Visual Studio .Net Setup" starts and choice 2 is described as the option
for uninstall. However when I select 2 the installer for a program that I
uninstalled quite some time ago starts (VisualCafe).

I have now tried to use the manual technique described in KB824642
referenced below. However after completing step 1 I get the message "This
action is only valid for products that are currently installed." The
product is currently installed because I can still execute it. Should I
continue with the KB824642 manual procedure?

DD

>> Hi,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Armin

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Phil Wilson - 01 Feb 2007 19:03 GMT

The contents of that folder should not be removed, evidently it has. A safer
detour is to find the actual original MSI file that was used to install your
Visual Studio and copy it into the installer folder with that name. That
oddly-named MSI file is a cached version of the original (without the files)
so you can substitute the original MSI file there.

Signature

Phil Wilson
[Microsoft MVP Windows Installer]

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Armin

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Armin Zingler - 01 Feb 2007 20:16 GMT

> The contents of that folder should not be removed, evidently it has.

Who? Not me for sure. :-)

> A safer detour is to find the actual original MSI file that was used
> to install your Visual Studio and copy it into the installer folder
> with that name. That oddly-named MSI file is a cached version of the
> original (without the files) so you can substitute the original MSI
> file there.

Given the link I posted, I was able to make a clean deinstall (I used the
vs_bla.msi from the orignal CD).

Unfortunatelly, the deinstallation created a new problem: There was the
folder "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\vs7debug". As the name says,
it was there for VS*7*, that means VS 2003. Now, whenever I start a project
in the VB *2005* IDE, I get an error complaining about a missing msdbg2.dll
in just that VS7Debug folder.

Why does VB 2005 need a DLL from VS 2003?

The error message also suggests to do a repair install. I will try this and
hope it will solve the problem, though I'm still interested in the answer to
the question above.

More info: I saved the VS7debug folder before uninstall. When I examine the
msdbg2.dll, it shows description "Microsoft Visual Studio 7.0 Debugging
Proxy/Stub" but file version is 8.0.50727.42. Versions don't fit together,
IMO. There seem to be other VS8 files in the VS7Debug folder - why /there/?

Armin

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Phil Wilson - 08 Feb 2007 21:32 GMT

I can't really comment on the manual method of removing VS since it's not my
field at all, just the MSI stuff.
I believe there are some common Dlls between 2003 and 2005, IIRC related to
opening a .sln file and picking the right IDE, 2003 or 2005.

Signature

Phil Wilson
[Microsoft MVP Windows Installer]

>> The contents of that folder should not be removed, evidently it has.
>
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>
> Armin

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Armin Zingler - 13 Feb 2007 19:35 GMT

> I can't really comment on the manual method of removing VS since
> it's not my field at all, just the MSI stuff.
> I believe there are some common Dlls between 2003 and 2005, IIRC
> related to opening a .sln file and picking the right IDE, 2003 or
> 2005.

Thanks Phil, and sorry for answering that late, but my newsreader usually
shows the group red if there's a new message in my thread but it didn't this
time, thus the late answer.

Though, I think a "vs7debug" folder shouldn't be used from VS8 at all.

Armin

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Cannot deinstall VS 2003

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