CANNOT UNINSTALL IE7 FROM XP SP2 SYSTEM

[w7zr]

I want to uninstall IE7 from my system. Running XP Pro SP2. Reason: Have an unknown directory on my C: 43ba504480e06.... and can not delete it. That directory contains dll and mui and ie7 files that appear to also be in c:\windows\ie7.

Since I could not delete folder I tried to do normal uninstall from Control Panel both in regular and safe mode. It fails in the Software Update Remove Wizzard with an error "Handle is Invalid".

I have tried most KB ideas but none have worked for me.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Have you tried deleting the folder when in safe mode?

Dan



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[w7zr]

I am not able to delete the directory in safe mode either. There is a sub directory called "Update" if that is any help.

 

[w7zr]

Here is a little more information. The culprit file was hmmapi.dll. I wound up able to delete all of the files except that one. Then for some unknown reason was able to delete it. Now I just have a 0 byte Update sub folder that returns an access denied error when I try to delete it. I changed the attribute from read only but that does not work. So I have this crazy directory with a 0 byte sub directory that I can not remove.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You should be able to boot into a command prompt and delete it, assuming it contains no hidden system files.

Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

[/tt]

 

[w7zr]

rmdir update just gives me access is denied.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

Did you see if there were any hidden / system files in that folder? Change into it and type:

dir /a

Then use the attrib command to unset any hidden / system attributes on ay files present.

Hope this helps,
Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

[/tt]

 

[w7zr]

Well it is fixed. Poor management on my part because I can not tell you step by step how I fixed it but here are the essentials.

No matter how many times and ways I tried to view the directory "Update" it would not let me. I finally was playing around with ownership permissions and was able to see that in fact there were files in that directory and that is one other reason why I could not delete it. Then I had to change some of the file ownerships and was able to delete them. After deleting all of the files I was able to remove the "Update" directory and the crazy name directory.

Thanks for all of the ideas.

 

[electronicsfreak]

That sounds like some adware you had ahold of. Id advise running a scan with housecall below and make sure nothing else is showing. Also are you familiar with hijackthis?

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

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