Stranded Registry Entries Preventing Uninstall

Question

I have a .NET/Visual Studio/C# application that cannot be uninstalled on one of my development computers. (It CAN be installed, and uninstalled, on the other development computer.)

This appears to be a registry problem. As a test, I added a new registry entry to the setup project since this problem started -- and the new registry entry is removed by the uninstaller. Only OLD registry entries -- and files -- are not uninstalled.

There is no error message when the uninstaller runs -- it just fails to remove the application.

If this is a registry problem as I suspect, how do I clean it up?

Answer 1

Simple answer: Reinstall Windows XP

Answer 2

Use regmon from Sysinternals to see which registry-entries are being accessed when running the uninstall. Try to see what registry-entries are missing and fix them.

Answer 3

Even better, use sc.exe. This is a windows utility that will remove a service from your registry.

The command would be something like this:

c:\windows\system32\sc delete MyService