IE7 won't install -- registry problem?

Today MS notified me that the IE7 update was available for me. It went through the download routine OK, but after the install process there was an error message that it failed. The troubleshooting icon appeared on my desktop and I went through several of its workarounds. No joy. So I phoned IE7 tech support and spent over 2 hours with a fellow in Nova Scotia. He had me do some things. No good. So we shifted control of my system to him and he tried several things -- in Safe Mode, with all my AV and spyware progs disabled. More failed installs. Regedits wouldn't work, and part of the problem seems to be getting past the administrator control. Something is locked. We ran out of time (late back there) and he decided to escalate the case. Another specialist should phone tomorrow morning to work a fix.

The ie7.log file shows:

[ie7.log]
0.359: ================================================================================
0.359: 2006/11/01 16:24:47.812 (local)
0.359: e:\9f52b760b6bf85ce4ccb945dbc2dc21d\update\update.exe (version 6.2.29.0)
0.375: Failed To Enable SE_SHUTDOWN_PRIVILEGE
0.375: Hotfix started with following command line: /quiet /norestart /er /log:C:\WINDOWS
2.703: IECUSTOM: Scanning for proper registry permissions...
4.390: IECUSTOM: Scanning for proper registry permissions...
4.703: IECUSTOM: Scanning for proper registry permissions...
5.203: IECUSTOM: Unwriteable key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl
5.281: IECUSTOM: Backing up registry permissions...
5.281: IECUSTOM: Unable to backup DACLs HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl
5.281: IECUSTOM: Finished backing up registry permissions...
5.281: IECUSTOM: An error occured verifying registry permissions. ERROR: 0x80070005
5.281: DoInstallation: CustomizeCall Failed: 0x3f5
5.281: IECUSTOM: Restoring registry permissions...
5.281: IECUSTOM: Unable to restore DACLs HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchUrl
5.281: IECUSTOM: Finished restoring registry permissions...
5.281: The configuration registry key could not be written.
5.281: Internet Explorer 7 installation did not complete.
5.281: Update.exe extended error code = 0x3f5

Does that provide any clues? Ideas?

 

If you have Zone Alarm 6.5 uninstall it until you have finished installing IE 7. It blocks access to critical registry keys.

As will Tea Timer from Spybot S & D.

My recommended fix -------------

• Download the SubInACL tool and install it. By default it will install to c:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...56-D8FE-4A91-93CF-ED6985E3927B&displaylang=en
• Go to the Start menu, choose Run, type cmd and click OK
  In the cmd window, type cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools" to change directories to the folder that SubInACL is installed to
  Type notepad reset.cmd and click yes to create a new file named reset.cmd in c:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools
• Copy and paste the following contents into reset.cmd and then save and close it:
  
• Type reset.cmd and press enter to run the SubInACL tool (you will need to have adminstrator privileges for this to run correctly). This tool will take several minutes to run
• After reset.cmd completes, try to install IE7.

 

Bill: Thanks for replying.

I don't have ZA 6.5. I did, but it recently started giving me trouble (I think it was with RegSeeker 1.52) so I deleted it and went back to ZA 6.1.744.001, which seems to be working OK.

I checked your link and noticed that the SubInACL tool is for the Pro version of Win XP only. I have the Home Edition version, so I didn't go any further.

I haven't heard from MS tech support yet today. Should I wait for them, or are the other steps you mention something I should try while I'm waiting?

 

Direct download of Subinacl:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8ba3e56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b

Continue with the earlier instructions.

 

Bill: By saying "This tool will take several minutes to run," you weren't kidding. It started about 35 minutes ago and still running. Or at least that's what it appears to be doing. The reset.cmd thing is scrolling a mile a minute. Is it normal to take so long? Whether I do have administrator privileges or not is one of the matters I mentioned in my first post. I should have it, since this is a stand-alone system and I'm the only person that uses it. And I am running this thing in Win XP SP2 (HE).

What will appear when the run is completed, assuming it does so correctly? If it isn't running correctly, how do I stop it and is there any risk involved?

 

How long it runs is dependent on how many Folders you have. It needs to process them twice.

There is nothing exciting at the end, the process simply closes its window.

Reboot and try the installation of IE 7 again.
(Following this advice to do so: http://www.ie-vista.com/known_issues.html#pre-install)

 

Bill: The run has been going on for nearly an hour and a half now, still running. Is that reasonable considering the size of my HDD (80 GB)?

Your latest link mentions ZoneAlarm and Vista. I've been suspicious of it causing some of this trouble, but I'm reluctant to completely uninstall it and rely on WinXP's firewall forever. But the link specifies v 6.5, which I already mentioned I've deleted in exchange for the older version. Safe to stay with it?

 

Hi BOBBO and Bill,

IE7 and ZA.

Reading the advisory, it makes no distinction between free and Pro/Suite versions. But I'm hard put to understand how the free version woud be blocking access to the registry - the paid versions do, but that also is a matter of permission/deny.

I installed IE7 on the OS that runs Pro v6.5 - I had the firewall turned off beause I didn't want to go thru answering ZAP, and no problems in installing.

Regards - Charles

 

Let it run. (It takes longer if you watch it run).

MS-MVP Sandi Hardemeir wrote: "If you are running ZoneAlarm 6.5, disconnect from the internet, uninstall ZoneAlarm, make sure Windows Firewall is enabled, reconnect to the internet then install IE7. This is because ZoneAlarm was blocking access to the Windows Registry. Yes, you have to uninstall ZoneAlarm.

"IE7 installer runs various registry permission checks before installation starts to minimise the risk of aborted/damaged installs, but there is no guarantee that the installer will pick up everything. It is best to ensure that problematic software that may block access to the registry be disabled. "

 

Still running, 2.5 hours now.

After getting tired of playing Solitaire and Hearts, I brought several unread magazines down here and have done a lot of catching up.

The MS tech call hasn't arrived yet, which isn't a big surprise. If it happens while this run is still going on, is it OK to abort? Will it mean the time was wasted, or will what's been done so far remain?

"several minutes ", huh?

 

You can do a Ctrl-C, or Ctrl-break to try and stop it.
Or use Task Manager.

It may have accomplished the goal, as it resets registry entries first.
If you do interrupt, try the IE install.

If it fails again, (With Antivirus software, Anti-malware software, stopped) then use this method and try again: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=313222

(This method does not take as long)

 

I keep forgetting this.
Please read this discussion of your issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917925/en-us

 

Bill: That discussion is what I worked through unsuccessfully before I resorted to phoning MS. And after that I submitted the first post, containing the IE7.log, above.

I stopped the run about an hour ago after 3+ hours. For some reason the Ctrl+C didn't work but Ctrl+Break did. I'll try working on IE7 in a bit.

Still no call from MS.

 

Bill: My latest effort to install IE7 turned out the same as the others. It went through all the activity and ended with a message saying it failed to install.

When I tried your second suggestion and clicked on your link, I got this:

Since I'm using XP Home Edition, is that procedure appropriate for my system?

Still no call from MS.

 

Unfortunately, no. You do not have the security repository, or the utilities used by the KB reset method.

Why not let the subinacl program run while you sleep?

 

Very interesting development: I believe in my prior attempts I'd downloaded IE7 into the E:\ partition of my HDD and opened it there to create a folder in C:\. This time I downloaded it into C:\Program Files\IE7. At the end of the download and install processes a screen appeared telling me the installation was incomplete. "Incomplete" seemed an improvement over "failed," so I rebooted. In the new C:\*\IE7 folder are lots of IE7 files. One of them is iexplore.exe and it has the IE7 icon. I sent that icon to the Desktop. So it now appears that everything may have installed OK.

When I click on that icon, though, what looks like a flash screen opens for only a fraction of a second and then disappears. That's as far as I get. Any ideas?

EDIT: Here's a new ie7.log report:

0.625: 2006/11/02 23:05:17.500 (local)
0.625: C:\Program Files\IE7\update\update.exe (version 6.2.29.0)
0.688: Hotfix started with following command line:
0.781: IECUSTOM: To install this program, please run iesetup.exe instead
8.531: CreateUserInterface: DefineInstallCustomUI returned 0x32
8.531: CreateUserInterface: DefineInstallCustomUI Failed: 0x32
8.547: DoInstallation:CreateProgressDialog failed
8.547: Internet Explorer 7 Setup canceled.
10.953: Message displayed to the user: Internet Explorer 7 Setup canceled.
10.953: User Input: OK
10.953: Update.exe extended error code = 0xf00d
10.953: Update.exe return code was masked to 0x643 for MSI custom action compliance.

 

OK.

1. This is all one line to be copied by your mouse:

Code:

REG ADD  "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Cached" /v  "{A4DF5659-0801-4A60-9607-1C48695EFDA9} {00214E6-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} 0x401" /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Start, Run, and paste the contents into the entry box. Click OK.

2. Now Download and install this registry utility from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6d-f4c3-44a6-8d01-5972854c0845&displaylang=en

Use the utility when installing IE 7 again. If any registry entries are returned by the utility, use Regedit and right-click on each, Permissions, and then make sure you as Administrator have Full Control over the Registry key(s). Reboot and try the installation again.

 

Bill: I let the suninacl command run all night (8.75 hours) and it was still running this morning, so I stopped it. For some reason neither the Ctrl+C or the Ctrl+Break commands worked and I had to use TM to get it to stop.

I'll run this latest operation shortly.

 

Hi, thanks Bill for your fix. I had both Zonealarm and Spybot installed and have previously tried uninstalling them before installing IE7 but still had problems. IE7 ran ok in the account I installed it from but would not run in my other accounts.

I ran your fix after uninstalling the programs and everything is running sweet.

Thanks again

Colin.

 

My luck wasn't so good.

I put your command into the Run box and it rejected it: "cannot find '

Code:

REG' ".  So I tried again without the [code] parts and that appeared to be OK.  Went to the MS site and did the Validate thing.  Ran iesetup.exe (with all malware progs disabled except XP's firewall) and got the  "did not complete" message at the end again.

I'm suspecting the obstacle has something to do with my system thinking I don't have administrator privileges.  I certainly should, as I'm the only one that uses it and everything in it is registered to me.  That problem stymied the MS tech guy I spent so much time with the other evening, too.  He tried several ways of getting past it before we ran out of time -- well past midnight, their closing time.  Still no call-back from them yet, BTW.

[b]LATER:[/b]  I went back to the Internet Explorer Troubleshooting page and in Method 3 step 2 is a command [quote]echo y| cacls  "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\VGX\vgx.dll" /P BUILTIN\Users:R  "BUILTIN\Power Users:C" BUILTIN\Administrators:F  "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:F "[/quote] I entered it into Run and clicked OK.  Got the error message  "cannot find 'echo'"  Another sign of the same problem?