Ok, so I uninstalled Rome Total War but i think during the uninstall a problem happened (locked up i think), so i canceled the program. i then tried to start the game and it couldnt find the files so i figured everything was ok. i then went into my computer and deleted the folders myself. i figured everything was gone. Now when i try to put in CD 1 to reinstall fresh so i can add a mod to it (RTR platinum), but i have a problem. the CD start menu only has the options of play and uninstall....there is no install option. when i try to uninstall nothing happens and when i try to play nothin happens, so i figure that i have uninstalled the game. i am stuck in limbo, i hate to think that this great game i bought is no longer good to me because i cant install it anymore. is there any way to either completely uninstall or bypass the menu and install to a different fresh folder? please help, i am totally not computer savy thanks

6/7/2007 3:59:19 PM

Have your tried uninstalling it from the control panel?

You can always manually get rid of it with a registry cleaner.

6/7/2007 4:07:27 PM

i cant uninstall from control because it doenst find anything

6/7/2007 4:08:10 PM

Try running a registry cleaner, as suggested, or manually clean the entries from the registry if that doesn't work.

6/7/2007 6:32:21 PM

Yeah it's stuck in the registry, and i believe that's telling the uninstaller it's still installed.

6/7/2007 6:35:43 PM

yeah just hit up some regedit and search for entries relating to that game/developer/whatever

also a good way to get unlimited versions out of 'trial version' software

6/7/2007 6:37:18 PM

Preface, you should use a better version of regedit, get RegAlyzer from here: http://www.safer-networking.org/files/regalyz.exe

Disclaimer: I do this shit at work, and I dont care about fucking up our test machines. If you dont want to risk really hosing your system with editing the registry, then dont bother reading the shit below.

I write windows installers with InstallShield at work, you wouldnt believe the amount of registry keys that get created for every program you install.

Just search for the install directory in the registry, remove those registry keys and that should clear up most of the files, then search for the program name, and those keys can go too

now look under C:\WINDOWS\Installer, its a hidden system directory, so you may have to type it in manually to find it. The Windows Installer caches the .MSI files in there, and you want to find the MSI and remove that. You can figure it out because it should be digitally signed by the publisher of the game. You can look at the file properties to see the digital signature. If its not, there should also be the program info in the file properties Summary page.

Now with that MSI name, you need to search through the registry and remove that as well.

For example, Google Earth's MSI is cached on my machine as 43233714.msi, and I find it under the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-21-4239964398-3725866180-2997655157-1007\Products\C5B9B7045CAD44F47A655BC7BAE4A6B8\InstallProperties
With that info, you need to make note of the uninstall string GUID: MsiExec.exe /I{407B9B5C-DAC5-4F44-A756-B57CAB4E6A8B}, search through the registry and delete everything that refers to {407B9B5C-DAC5-4F44-A756-B57CAB4E6A8B}

there will also be a subdirectory of C:\Windows\Installer with the GUID from above with the program icon, you can whack that as well.

This should clear up most of the stuff, if you have gotten this far, reboot your system and try reinstalling the program.

If it doesnt work, you didnt delete all the registry keys, there are a shit ton of registry keys that MSI installers create when you install.

If your system doesnt work, I already warned you and its your own damn fault for fucking it up. You may be able to boot to the "Last Known Good Configuration" or something.

Like I said, I do this shit at work, and its an ugly business to go through and manually remove all the traces of an installed MSI application. In most cases, just reinstalling the machine is a simpler solution. That isnt always an option though.

Good luck,
- Me

PS: I prefer installers written in NSIS, since they dont do any registry black magic when you install

[Edited on June 7, 2007 at 10:02 PM. Reason : NSIS > MSI anyday]

6/7/2007 9:59:18 PM