Hosed Uninstall - Help!

I have encountered a very annoying problem that I've never run into before. Specifically, I recently uninstalled CorelDraw, but for some reason the uninstall process got corrupted and locked up my machine. Now every time I boot up my machine the msiexec program sees that an uninstall was not completed and tries to complete the process, only it won't do it. The only way I can get that process to stop is to hit "cancel" a half dozen times when the windows keep popping up and after a while it will finally stop--until I turn my machine on again at a later time.

I've gone in and manually forced an uninstall from the programs list and removed what I can from the various directories and register, but there are obviously some pieces left that are telling the machine to continue the uninstall. It won't allow me to reinstall the program either, as it looks for a file that is apparently not there or is corrupted.

Is there any program or method out there that can help me go in and find every trace of the CorelDraw install and enable me to eliminate it? Or at the very least, where can I go to find where the msiexec.exe program is being told to complete the uninstall upon every boot-up?

Thanks in advance to any help anyone can give me on this whacked out situation!

 

DarthMatta--If nothing else works and you can reinstall Corel, do so and then try to uninstall from Control Panel|Add/Remove.

 

PeteC--Ah. I missed that.
Another idea would be to go into the Registry--HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components
You are going to have to left click on each of those long number strings in the left panel to see if you can find any associated with Corel. If you do find one or more, first back up the Registry (File|Export which will create a .reg file you can use to restore things if you need to), then right click in the left panel the folder containing Corel data|Delete. Confirm OK.
With luck, the lock up problem may be solved, or you may at least now be able to reinstall so you can try for a clean uninstall through Control Panel|Add/Remove.

 

WelshJim, et al,

Thanks for your inputs. I downloaded RegSeeker and ran it (Cool little program!). I was able to eliminate hundreds of references to CorelDraw and thought that might do the trick. I also cleared out my temp folder, as suggested. Alas, when I rebooted, I have the same automated attempt to install CorelDraw 12 as before, and I have to hit "Cancel" about 3 times each time it pops up (two times in succession now, I think). I did pay attention to the message that came up when it was first unable to find the install files it was looking for and here is what the window said:

Internal Error 2718
{505AFDC0-5E72-4928-8368-5DEA385E 3647}

Mean anything to anyone? Jim, I'll take a look at what you suggest this latest round, but if anyone has any other great ideas, I'd sure appreciate it, as it's driving me crazy every time I boot up!

 

what's in startup? get mike lin's startup control panel and see. or boot in safe mode and see if the error persists there.

u could also go to corel's support site or docs and see if they advise 'how to kill install manually' as they probably do have such.

 

I did do a search for it and found three instances of it. I nuked them, but the program STILL wants to install when I reboot. I have never had this happen before. Totally crazy. Something on boot-up is telling the msiexec program that the CorelDraw install has to continue. Obviously I need to find that something, but I'm out of ideas as to where to look. I'll keep searching, but appreciate all the feedback...

 

Okay, miracle of miracles, I've got the problem stopped. I did go searching through the Corel knowledge database (which I should have done first, I know) and sure enough they had references to manually uninstalling various versions of CorelDraw (sounds like it may be a recurring problem...). I had done everything they suggested, except they recommended to download from Microsoft their Windows Install Clean-up Program. This simple little program shows what the system sees as installed, which is not exactly what you see in the control panel window. At any rate, there were two unnamed references that both had "12" as part of their entry. I rolled the dice and nuked them both, and voila! I'm good to go again! Woo hoo!

Thanks again to you guys who took the time to try and help. I've gotten lots of great help and ideas on this site before. Greatly appreciate it!