Can't reinstall Netscape 7

Hi, this is my first time posting here. I am working on a computer running Windows 98 second edition.

I originally installed Netscape 7 about a week ago, and after a couple of days the sidebar stopped responding properly and I had to open and close it to get the bookmarks to load. A short time later icons for Netscape radio, and others which were unchecked in my preferences, started showing up on the toolbar.

So I uninstalled Netscape 7, and then tried to reinstall it. However, right after the installation box popped up, I got error boxes cascading to the bottom of my screen. They all contained the following message:

"Setup is not complete. If you quit the setup program now, the program will not be installed. You may run the setup program at a later time to complete the installation. Are you sure you want to cancel setup? "

Answering "no" had no effect, and answering yes closed the program.

I've tried the following fixes to no avail:

Deleting the Netscape install program (tried both the on-line and off-line "full" versions).

Using Tweak UI to repair associations and system files.

Using EZ Recovery to restore system settings.

Trying Ramona's instructions for a "clean" Netscape 7 installation.

In addition, after using EZ Recovery, the system has another glitch. It now says on boot up that either windows registry or system.ini is referencing the file tsiusb.vxd, which is missing from the system. Tsiusb.vxd is indeed in the windows system file, which is the reference in windows registry. There is no reference to tsiusb.vxd in system.ini. I guess I can fix this by using my saved settings, but I haven't tried it yet.

Sorry for such a long initial post. It's been a very long day! I appreciate any help.

Barbara

 

Welcome to the Forum, bhirsch!

Hi Barbara,

Your Netscape problems before uninstall are not unusual, and can usually be solved by creating a new Profile. As to using Tweak UI to repair associations and system files, and EZ Recovery to restore system settings, that sounds like an overkill. Were you having problems with your OS prior to the install of Netscape??

Hard to say what the problem was with your install, especially if you did the "Clean Install ". That should have deleted almost every vestige of Netscape from your system, especially if you followed the procedure for a problematic Netscape.

If you try installing Netscape again, delete the Mozilla folder in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data. first. I'm not certain that will make a difference, but it could. I would not use the online installer, as that does not always make for a good install.

As for your missing tsiusb.vxd, that must be a driver for an application that you have installed.

Ramona

 

Ramona,

Thanks for all your suggestions. I did finally get Netscape 7 reinstalled, but I couldn't do it until I'd gotten every Netscape file off my system. Once I'd done that, eveything was fine.

There is still one glitch. I cannot get the personal toolbar icons to appear on the toolbar. I have gone to the bookmark manager and clicked on view and "set as personal toolbar" while my personal toolbar folder was highlighted, but nothing happens.

There are only two other gripes with this browser. Symbol fonts don't appear correctly. I'm a medical journalist, and most HTML copy, including mine, uses the font "symbol" for mathematical and Greek characters. These worked fine in Netscape 4.x, but don't work in Netscape 6 or 7. They do work in all versions of IE.

I also noticed that printing in Netscape 7 is a little strange. Tables that are aligned left or right of text don't print that way. Text appears above and below, but not next to the table.

BTW, tisusb.vxd is a device driver for Laplink, which I'd removed from my computer. I no longer even have the software, because I have a LAN now. The only way I could satisfy my computer is by putting another copy of the driver in the windows system file. After that everything was fine.

Just thought I'd share my solutions for what they're worth!

Barbara

 

Hi Barbara,

Glad to hear that you were able to install Netscape.

The glitches that you describe in printing, and symbol fonts, are both bugs in Netscape. They are being addressed, but whether or not they will be fixed in the next release, remains to be seen...

On your Personal Toolbar:
You have to close N7, including Quick Launch, and reopen it before the change takes effect. If you are doing so, disregard.

Try setting another folder as the Personal Toolbar. If that works satisfactorily, then reset the one you want, and see if it works. You may have to do this more than once, in order to get the folder of choice to be retained as the Personal Toolbar.

How strange that you had to put the driver file back on the System... There must be a leftover in the Registry that may be causing the file to be required? I'm no Windows expert, so I really am not sure.

Thanks for posting back, and let us know if you continue to have problems with the Personal Toolbar.

Ramona

 

Hi Ramona,

I let my finger do the walking through this board and found the same solution you just gave me for fixing the personal tool bar, and that worked just great.

Even better, I found a solution to the Netscape symbols font problem. To enable symbol fonts you need to alter the Open fontEncoding.properties file. Using a text editor you comment out the line:

encoding.symbol.ttf = adobe-Symbol-Encoding

and replace it with:

encoding.symbol.ttf = windows-1252

So the results look like:

# Symbol font
# encoding.symbol.ttf = Adobe-Symbol-Encoding
encoding.symbol.ttf = windows-1252

I found this at the following URL:

http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/netscape.html

Worked like a charm!

I'm not sure why, but there were a ton of references to tsiusb.vxd in my registry file, so it was easier to just put the file back in windows system than try to delete all the references. I originally just delete the registry entries, and every time I rebooted I'd get the error message and then find more references in the registry, when I thought I'd deleted them all! I work out of my house and have a little LAN on which I transfer files back and forth, but that shouldn't affect windows registry.

I guess this must have occurred when the files were transferred back and forth on Laplink. I'm not an expert on any of this, but I've got a big web site, and so I know more than the average computer user, but I'm no programmer!

Barbara

 

Hi Barbara,

Good find on the Symbol Fonts, and thanks for the feedback!

Ramona