100%Red&White Posted 28 March, 2011 Share Posted 28 March, 2011 We've just started to get a 'Windows Installer' box pop-up which says Preparing Install... every time we boot up the machine, open any programme, internet, email, etc. If you just leave it it disappears after a couple of minutes or so, if you cancel it another box justs keeps popping up for a few times. You can then carry on until you open something else and it starts again. I did ininstall the last thing my nipper had downloaded in case it hadn't installed correctly and cleared out the downloads folder in case that was causing any problem but to no avail. Limited 'pooter knowledge - any suggestions? Ta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 28 March, 2011 Share Posted 28 March, 2011 you could stop the 'windows installer' service (Start-Run-Services.msc) More of a workround than a fix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquidshokk Posted 28 March, 2011 Share Posted 28 March, 2011 Have a look at the startup items under msconfig command and untick what you don't expect to start up on boot. Be careful though, some you don't recognise might actually be needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baj Posted 28 March, 2011 Share Posted 28 March, 2011 I think I had this once, it was a corrupt install of something that triggered it. It was pretty bloody fatal, even working on the system registry didnt fix it. Really hope you dont have the same thing, cos my only solution was a reinstall. Might sound drastic but did plenty of googling on specifically what was causing my issue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 28 March, 2011 Share Posted 28 March, 2011 try the windows installer cleanup utility but be careful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
100%Red&White Posted 28 March, 2011 Author Share Posted 28 March, 2011 Cheers, all. I did Google specifically but it only seemed to throw up incidents of particular programme start-ups that triggered it - I'll tread carefully, bit wary of fiddling with the registry with my limited knowledge, once had CCleaner on an old machine and seemed to cause as many problems as it fixed (in the wrong hands!). Think I'll do a bit more investigating before pressing ahead. Ta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 28 March, 2011 Share Posted 28 March, 2011 CCleaner is vile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquidshokk Posted 28 March, 2011 Share Posted 28 March, 2011 CCleaner is vile. Why do you say that? I've used it for the last couple of years on my personal laptop and not had any probs. Not defending it, just curious to know what I'm opening myself up to if you say its bad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 29 March, 2011 Share Posted 29 March, 2011 I hate all registry 'cleaners' really. If you need to clean your Registry, you should be formatting and starting again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquidshokk Posted 29 March, 2011 Share Posted 29 March, 2011 I hate all registry 'cleaners' really. If you need to clean your Registry, you should be formatting and starting again I really only use the temp files cleaning part for covering tracks... I mean, keeping my laptop clean of unnecesary files.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 29 March, 2011 Share Posted 29 March, 2011 fair enough.......does it offer anything more than Disk Cleanup?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquidshokk Posted 29 March, 2011 Share Posted 29 March, 2011 fair enough.......does it offer anything more than Disk Cleanup?! Its super quick for one thing. I find disk cleanup can take a while to open and then a long time to clean. CCleaner is done and dusted in 10-15 seconds (depending how deep you want to cover your tracks) and it cleans the index.dat files and all windows log files, not sure if cleanup goes that far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
100%Red&White Posted 29 March, 2011 Author Share Posted 29 March, 2011 Its super quick for one thing. I find disk cleanup can take a while to open and then a long time to clean. CCleaner is done and dusted in 10-15 seconds (depending how deep you want to cover your tracks) and it cleans the index.dat files and all windows log files, not sure if cleanup goes that far. I used CCleaner in the past and thought it was good and quick for a cleanup but I think I may have got rid of something I probably needed which seemed to cause problems with my old PC and not being too savvy with these things thought all things registry were best left alone by the likes of me. Going back to my OP, I'm beginning to think this may have been caused by an Auto Windows Update. My nipper said there was an update ready when he went to close down the other day and that looks like it hasn't updated as the icon remains on the 'shut-down' button and despite several attempts to close and reboot it's not changing. I can only guess this is the bad install? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquidshokk Posted 29 March, 2011 Share Posted 29 March, 2011 What happens when you go to windows update and check for updates manually? If it has updates to go through then hopefully that will find them. A quick google also found this; rompting to Install the Same Updates Every Day If you are being asked to install the same updates every day, then the catalogue that manages what updates you have installed is probably corrupt. There are a number of resolutions that you can try, in order to resolve this problem. Resolution 1 Open "Computer Management" from within Administrative Tools in Control Panel. Expand the Services and Applications branch. In the list of services, find "Automatic updates". Right click on it and choose "restart". If this option isn't available, choose "Stop" and then once the service has been stopped, right click again and choose "Start". Resolution 2 Stop the "Automatic Updates" service from within "Services" in "Computer Management". Browse to Program Files, Windows Update. Note: If you don't see the "Windows Update" folder, then you need to turn on "Show Hidden Files and Folders". To do this click on Tools, Folder options. Then choose the "View" tab. Scroll down until you find the section "Hidden Files and Folders" and change the radio button to "Show hidden files and folders". Delete everything in that folder except for the folder called "V4". Double click on the "V4 folder". Delete everything in that folder except for "iuhist.xml" (you may not see the xml extension if you don't view extensions normally. Close the Explorer windows. If you had to enable "Show Hidden Files and Folders" then change the option back if you don't want to see them normally. Restart the "Automatic Updates" service. Resolution 3 (Windows XP only) Stop the "Automatic Updates" service from within "Services" in "Computer Management". Browse to the windows directory, then the system32 then "catroot2" - NOT CATROOT without a number! Delete the contents of that directory, including the subdirectories. Reboot the machine. Resolution 3a (Windows XP) In some cases we have had to rename the "catroot2" directory (such as putting .old after it) then rebooting for the problem to go away. You cannot delete the folder as it will probably be in use. After rebooting, Windows will create a new copy of the "catroot2" folder and this should resolve the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
100%Red&White Posted 29 March, 2011 Author Share Posted 29 March, 2011 Nice one Mr Liquid. I'll have a look later on. Ta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 29 March, 2011 Share Posted 29 March, 2011 you could also go to-control panel-add or remove programs and tick the 'show windows updates' and look for ones installed recenty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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