Removing Windows Installer Data

If you thought that manually removing legacy applications was difficult, try removing a Windows Installer-based application manually. More than once I’ve broken Windows Installer-based applications so badly that I couldn’t remove them, repair them, or reinstall them. In these cases, I had to manually remove the application’s Windows Installer data from the registry or reinstall Windows XP Professional. Tools are available that automate this process, and you learn about them in this chapter.

Before I introduce the tools, I will point you to the location in the registry where Windows Installer stores data about the applications it installs. Don’t modify these settings using Registry Editor (Regedit) because doing so ...

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