Resolved Window Live Mail error, now cannot reinstall Windows Live

Windows Live Mail has always worked fine until recently. I was trying to open a new mail and got the error: "A problem occurred while trying to open this message ". I tried repairing Windows Essential 2012 from the uninstall programs option in Control Panel, but to no avail. SO I uninstalled it and am now trying to reinstall all the Windows Live components (I downloaded the install program 'wlsetup-web.exe' from the MS website).

Now the install progresses BUT at the end it says it didn't install properly (error 0x80040609: see attachment for details). I have Mcafee Internet Security virus checker installed asit is part of Bell's package and they require you to use it. Can that be causing a problam. It never has before :-/

I even tried using 'Fixit' at http://support.microsoft.com/mats/program_install_and_uninstall but that didn't help either >.<

Any suggestions how I can get Windows Essential 2012 to install? As it stands my Windows Live Mail is no longer on the PC and I can't get my mail (I have a lot of archived/backed up messages to I need access to).

 

Mike, are you an AT&T customer?

If you are, that software is not required, but AT&T makes it appear that it is. Now that you have an account with the ISP, you should be able to uninstall McAfee.

I told the rep that I did not want any AT&T-branded software when I signed-on with them, and after I went through the account creation prompts, the rep told me to close out the (Motive) web page, and that was that - no installation of McAfee, or AT&T-branded Internet Explorer either.

 

No as stated in my post above I'm with Bell in Quebec, Canada. They require you to use Mcafee which they provide for free. But that shouldn't matter, I've had Windows Live/Essentials suite installed before with no problem and Mcafee was also installed and running. Some recent windows update caused all this issue with uninstalling/reinstalling Live Essentials and I can't find any way to get around the recurring error.

 

Have you tried system restore?

Live Mail malfunctioned on me a while back, and system restore solved my problem.

 

A system restore is the first thing I tried but didn't help. I would continually go into a Startup Repair Infinite Loop. The only thing that got me back to my desktop was this procedure (copying an initial registry backup): http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139576-startup-repair-infinite-loop-recovery.html

From there I could get to my desktop and then had to run a good 100 windows updates and reset a number of program settings that went back to default. Right now Windows Live/Essentials seems the only one not working. Can't uninstall reinstall fix or install it again. I wish the error message it gave was more informative but I can't find what is causing the uninstalls or re-installs for Windows Live Essentials to fail. All the useless message says is that 'something' is stopping in from uninstalling or re-installing. Big help that >.< .. I tried all the fixes I've found on the net but nothing works.

I've never had problems with Windows Live Essentials updates before even with Mcafee running so no idea why it won't install now.

 

Instead of wlsetup-web.exe run the offline wlsetup-all.exe installer from here:

Offline Installer for Windows Live Essentials 2012

Expand the section for your OS and choose the correct language download

 

I downloaded the "wlsetup-all.exe" you gave the link to BUT when I try to run it it gives the error "wlsetup-all.exe is not a valid Win32 application ".

Strange since I have 'Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit' ?

Is there a 64-bit version or what does this error mean?

 

Ok I had to right click on the EXE and "run as Administrator" .. it's running/installing now but it looks just like the web one I had downloaded yesterday. I'll post back once it's done with the results, but I'm skeptical.

 

The install finished but I get the same 0x80040609 error as I knew I would. WHY is it so difficult to install a program that worked fine for 2 years and previous versions were without errors. Every windows update ends up breaking something .. sad state of affairs when you can't get your own products to install properly anymore <sigh>.

 

Since you have the offline installer, you can shut down the internet connection, keep McAfee from starting up and disable the firewall. Then try again.

Look for the Logs folder in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\WLSetup and see if they shed any light on the problem.

 

How do I shut the internet down, do you mean just disconnect my NIC cable from the computer (I connect through a DSL modem). And as for turning off Mcafee I see no way to do that other than stop the firewall, which I did try while installing and still got the same error. I don't see how being connected to the internet would cause a stand alone install to NOT work.. that makes no sense. I think you're barking up the wrong tree. It seems to me that the windows registry itself was corrupted from one of their useless recent updates that always breaks something and I'm destined to slog through a way to fix the Microsoft's messes... as per usual.

In any event if you want to peruse the log file for the last unsuccessful intstall:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mikenowo/misc/WLSetup log file.txt

 

Your log suggests the problem is the failed previous installs/uninstalls, so I agree with your assessment that McAfee is not the problem.

(Quote) "WARNING: The older version of Windows Live Installer cannot be removed. "

(Quote) "MSI package 'WLXSuite' returned: 0x80070643 Fatal error during installation. "

That would also agree with the Microsoft support site in which Cristina_L, the Microsoft Forum Moderator, states (Quote) "Most of the time you will get the Error 0x80040609 if you still have previous copy of Windows Essentials. To Fix this, remove the previous version and do a fresh installation. "

uninstall one or more Windows Essentials programs

If the method in the link is unsuccessful, she suggests using the command line method for uninstalling, which requires that the file wlarp.exe be present on the disk.

Do a search for wlarp.exe on your computer. If you have it, here is her fix:

Go to Start ->All Programs ->Accessories

Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator

Paste in the following command:

c:\program files (x86)\windows live\installer\wlarp.exe" /cleanup:all /q

uninstall Windows Live Essentials via CMD line

If you don't have wlarp.exe I would do a brute force uninstall. Up to you if you want to try it.

In C:\Program Files (x86) delete or rename the Windows Live Folder if it still exists
In C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ delete or rename the Windows Live folder if it exists
Delete or rename C:\Users\ your-user-name \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail
Delete or rename any other Windows Live folders or files that you are aware of or can find.

Run CCleaner to get rid of temp files, Recycle Bin and old Prefetch data.

Run the registry tool in CCleaner and remove any obvious orphaned entries from the registry. Make the suggested backup file so you have a way back.

Reboot the computer. (Important)

Run the offline installer again.

 

I didn't have wlarp.exe on my PC since as I said there are NO windows live essential programs installed anymore. There are NO directories in ' C:\Program Files (x86)' or 'C:\Users\ MY-USER-NAME \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail' that have anything to do with window/live.. so I'm still stuck again with the install program giving me that error >.<

 

What about the registry scan? You find nothing related to Windows Live Essentials?

 

Well I ran CCleaner and deleted all the registry issues that it found but when I reran the Windows Essential again I got the same error again. It just won't install.

 

(Quote) "WHY is it so difficult to install a program that worked fine for 2 years and previous versions were without errors. Every windows update ends up breaking something .. sad state of affairs when you can't get your own products to install properly anymore. "

The answer IMHO is that Windows Essentials is a suite of applications all integrated with each other, with the Microsoft Windows OS, and with Microsoft web-based services. There is the possibly that even at Microsoft there is no one who fully understands all the interconnections.

At this point I usually restore an image from my external harddrive and go about the tedious process of bringing it up to date.

 

Well I FINALLY found how to fix it. Since I didn't have wlarp.exe on my system anymore I downloaded it from a website (http://g.live.com/1rewlive4arp/wlarp.exe) and ran it in command line mode (ran Command prompt as administrator then typed "wlarp.exe /cleanup:all /q "). I then ran the wlsetup-all.exe install for windows live you pointed me to before. It successfully completed but THEN I got an error saying that uxcore.dll didnt exist. SO I downloaded this dll from a website (http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?uxcore) and put it in the 'C:\windows\system32' directory. I then re-ran wlsetup-all.exe and it offered me a 'repair windows live option. This took a while but finally completed. I then went to the now existing 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Mail' folder and creted a shortcut on my desktop for the mail program: wlmail.exe.

What a hassle that was

 

Good god. Been a while (Windows 98) since I downloaded any .dll files.

At least you figured it out.

 

Wow. Hassle is an understatement. Thanks for the follow-up.