Messed Up System Restore - advice please!

[Linda Sewell]

Hi. I did a system restore to retrieve WinDVD, because I'd inadvertently
uninstalled it, and after this my system wouldn't shut down while some of my
Symantec features were enabled. I followed the Help & Support instructions
for solving startup/shutdown problems, and after that I discovered that all
my System Restore Points are gone. And there's no "Undo last restore" option
in system restore, either.

In addition, I now have a bunch of useless software that I never use that
came with my HP, and I can't remove any of it because the uninstall feature
for each of them is gone. "The Stare" kindly helped me when this happened
before with WeatherBug by suggesting I reinstall it, which I was able to do
via their website. That gave me the uninstall feature back and I could
remove it. However before I start hunting all over the internet to try to
find where I can download free versions of Marketbrowser, @Backup, etc.,
could someone please tell me the best way to get out of my current mess. And
I sure like to know why I have no restore points earlier than the day I
restored WinDVd!

I have long, involved instructions about reinstalling my Symantec software
so I don't have keep tweaking it every time I boot up. (I have done a
defragment and a complete online virus/trojan horse scan via Symantec's site
since all this happened.)

I short, does anyone know if there's a one-stop site (at HP?) where I can
pick up all the OEM software I originally had and thereby reinstall and then
uninstall the ones I don't want? And what did I do wrong that caused my
system restore facility to go haywire?

I'm sorry this is so long, but I thought all the background info would give
you a clear picture of what's happened and where my system's at. MVPs,
please help!

[Maureen Goldman]

>"Linda Sewell" > wrote:
>Hi. I did a system restore to retrieve WinDVD, because I'd inadvertently
>uninstalled it, and after this my system wouldn't shut down while some of my
>Symantec features were enabled. I followed the Help & Support instructions
>for solving startup/shutdown problems, and after that I discovered that all
>my System Restore Points are gone. And there's no "Undo last restore" option
>in system restore, either.
>
>In addition, I now have a bunch of useless software that I never use that
>came with my HP, and I can't remove any of it because the uninstall feature
>for each of them is gone. "The Stare" kindly helped me when this happened
>before with WeatherBug by suggesting I reinstall it, which I was able to do
>via their website. That gave me the uninstall feature back and I could
>remove it. However before I start hunting all over the internet to try to
>find where I can download free versions of Marketbrowser, @Backup, etc.,
>could someone please tell me the best way to get out of my current mess. And
>I sure like to know why I have no restore points earlier than the day I
>restored WinDVd! [snip]

Linda, could you clarify something? Unless you installed all of these
programs after the system restore point, you should still have them in
control panel - add\remove.

[Linda Sewell]

Yes, Maureen, they're visible in my Add/Remove control panel window. But if
I select Remove, I get the following error message:
"An installation support file could not be installed. The system cannot find
the file specified."
At that's that! I can't "remove" the software. I should have explained in my
first message that I had uninstalled the undesirable software at the same
time as I uninstalled WinDVD. So when I did a system restore to get WinDVD
back, the other software packages came back as well. But I don't want a
number of them cluttering up my system.
Any advice would be gratefully received! Thanks for your interest, Maureen.
(And, Ann, Maureen's the only one who's responded to my request so far.)

"Maureen Goldman" > wrote in message
...
> >"Linda Sewell" > wrote:
> >Hi. I did a system restore to retrieve WinDVD, because I'd inadvertently
> >uninstalled it, and after this my system wouldn't shut down while some of
my
> >Symantec features were enabled. I followed the Help & Support
instructions
> >for solving startup/shutdown problems, and after that I discovered that
all
> >my System Restore Points are gone. And there's no "Undo last restore"
option
> >in system restore, either.
> >
> >In addition, I now have a bunch of useless software that I never use that
> >came with my HP, and I can't remove any of it because the uninstall
feature
> >for each of them is gone. "The Stare" kindly helped me when this happened
> >before with WeatherBug by suggesting I reinstall it, which I was able to
do
> >via their website. That gave me the uninstall feature back and I could
> >remove it. However before I start hunting all over the internet to try to
> >find where I can download free versions of Marketbrowser, @Backup, etc.,
> >could someone please tell me the best way to get out of my current mess.
And
> >I sure like to know why I have no restore points earlier than the day I
> >restored WinDVd! [snip]
>
> Linda, could you clarify something? Unless you installed all of these
> programs after the system restore point, you should still have them in
> control panel - add\remove.
>

[Maureen Goldman]

>"Linda Sewell" > wrote:
>Hi. I did a system restore to retrieve WinDVD, because I'd inadvertently
>uninstalled it, and after this my system wouldn't shut down while some of my
>Symantec features were enabled. I followed the Help & Support instructions
>for solving startup/shutdown problems, and after that I discovered that all
>my System Restore Points are gone. And there's no "Undo last restore" option
>in system restore, either.
>
>In addition, I now have a bunch of useless software that I never use that
>came with my HP, and I can't remove any of it because the uninstall feature
>for each of them is gone. "The Stare" kindly helped me when this happened
>before with WeatherBug by suggesting I reinstall it, which I was able to do
>via their website. That gave me the uninstall feature back and I could
>remove it. However before I start hunting all over the internet to try to
>find where I can download free versions of Marketbrowser, @Backup, etc.,
>could someone please tell me the best way to get out of my current mess. And
>I sure like to know why I have no restore points earlier than the day I
>restored WinDVd!
>
>I have long, involved instructions about reinstalling my Symantec software
>so I don't have keep tweaking it every time I boot up. (I have done a
>defragment and a complete online virus/trojan horse scan via Symantec's site
>since all this happened.)
>
>I short, does anyone know if there's a one-stop site (at HP?) where I can
>pick up all the OEM software I originally had and thereby reinstall and then
>uninstall the ones I don't want? And what did I do wrong that caused my
>system restore facility to go haywire?
>
>I'm sorry this is so long, but I thought all the background info would give
>you a clear picture of what's happened and where my system's at. MVPs,
>please help!

>> Maureen Goldman
>> Linda, could you clarify something? Unless you installed all of these
>> programs after the system restore point, you should still have them in
>> control panel - add\remove.

>"Linda Sewell" > wrote:
>Yes, Maureen, they're visible in my Add/Remove control panel window. But if
>I select Remove, I get the following error message:
>"An installation support file could not be installed. The system cannot find
>the file specified."
>At that's that! I can't "remove" the software. I should have explained in my
>first message that I had uninstalled the undesirable software at the same
>time as I uninstalled WinDVD. So when I did a system restore to get WinDVD
>back, the other software packages came back as well. But I don't want a
>number of them cluttering up my system.
>Any advice would be gratefully received! Thanks for your interest, Maureen.

You're welcome. Let's not top-post, okay? Gets too confusing,
particular after the arrows accumulate.

>(And, Ann, Maureen's the only one who's responded to my request so far.)

With regard to replies: It's a long weekend. Some of the experts are
likely away. (I'm not an expert.) The reference to Ann eludes me, but
that's all right.

I don't recall anything to indicate that your system is in distress,
just that due to an irreversible Restore you've been left with
unwanted programs which are apparently uninstallable. Keep in mind
that you don't want to change a situation that feels awkward into a
genuine crisis. There is absolutely no rush.

I'm wondering whether the programs are uninstalled but not tidily.
When I've used restore, I've often found folders in c:\program files,
with minimal contents and the .exe files missing. If they are no
longer in the registry, I delete them and get rid of their add\remove
entries.

You might check to see if one of the unwanted programs is actually
still in your registry, to get a feeling for the way things stand. RUN
regedit, then use Find to look for a key with a distinctive name.
(Even in properly removed programs, this doesn't always mean much
since some programs leave considerable souvenirs.) Perhaps it would be
a good idea to download and run the Belarc advisor, which shows
software programs on your system, sometimes including remnants; this
will provide you with identifiers..

With regard to your restore points disappearing: I have no
explanation, but sometimes Restore seems fairly fragile. It's a good
idea to have a second backup of some kind, XP's ntbackup or, my
favorite, erunt.zip, a 575K freeware utility, downloaded from.
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt