INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Technical Support question: uninstall corrupts system?  (Read 1699 times)

roscoejr

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Technical Support question: uninstall corrupts system?
« on: September 13, 2012, 11:08:39 am »

I recently installed MC version 17.0.182 on Windows 7 SP1 32-bit. Works very nicely - I'm still learning some of the ins and outs, but overall, I really like the software and how it functions. Once I get this all sorted out, I plan to buy it...

However, during my initial install, I accidentally put it in a less than ideal folder. I played with it for about a day anyway, and then decided I had better reinstall in a better location on disc. No big deal. So I uninstalled, and then reinstalled to a better directory. Immediately thereafter, I noticed all kinds of issues with other software on the system. Stupidly I hadn't done a recent full backup before installing MC (I primarily backup data files, not the installations). That said, I have run a system restore to back track to before I installed MC and that has resolved the most critical issues (eg I can now access my email, which allowed me access to this forum), but many applications are still "missing" files... eg MS Office thinks it needs to reinstall, many programs have lost icons (or more likely paths to them), and many do not function properly - probably common dlls were removed (or paths lost) during the uninstall.

So I guess my question is for the technical staff at J River: have you tried the uninstall of this version on Windows 7 32 bit, and checked for collateral damage to other apps? was all fine? do you have any thoughts as to what might have gone awry or suggestions to correct it? I was kind of surprised that I had these problems after a reinstall - ie, I can see paths/dlls deleted in an uninstall, but I would have thought the reinstall would have reinstated them... no? Is there a newer version than 17.0.182 that addresses this? (I downloaded it about 3 days ago.

In principle, I can do a clean reinstall of the entire machine, but I'd rather not if it's something that might be salvageable. If not, hopefully this will at least be helpful at your end to debug, and perhaps as a note of caution to others to do a full system backup before installing.

thanks!
Logged

Matt

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 42388
  • Shoes gone again!
Re: Technical Support question: uninstall corrupts system?
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2012, 11:12:18 am »

Welcome, and sorry for the trouble.

We test the install / uninstall frequently.  I'm not aware of any issues.

But when you say "I accidentally put it in a less than ideal folder", what folder was that?  If you put it in a folder with another program or something it could lead to troubles.  There are some safeguards (so you don't install to C:\Windows, for example), but it's possible it needs more safeguards.

Thanks.
Logged
Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72446
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Technical Support question: uninstall corrupts system?
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2012, 11:29:02 am »

MC gets installed several thousand times a day and uninstalled frequently, so it isn't an MC problem.  As Matt says, if you installed it in your Windows System folder or something like that, unexpected things might happen.
Logged

roscoejr

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: Technical Support question: uninstall corrupts system?
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2012, 11:33:48 am »

Yes, so the "less than ideal folder" was "c:\ProgramFiles", rather than the default directory "c:\ProgramFiles\JRiver\MediaCenter17" (or something like that). It was just a gaff on my part while doing the custom installation - I thought I had hit cancel to go with the default after browsing and didn't notice in time the path was not the default... basically I was just too quick on the mouse for my own good! I didn't want to leave an installation in c:\ProgramFiles, so that's why I decided to reinstall in the normal path.

BTW, there were no other programs installed in c:\Program files, this machine is a fairly new install and it's otherwise a very clean system.

Note also, this is 32 bit Windows 7, not 64. Would have been surprised if that would be an issue though for something like this, but who knows...
Logged

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72446
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Technical Support question: uninstall corrupts system?
« Reply #4 on: September 13, 2012, 11:44:24 am »

Yes, so the "less than ideal folder" was "c:\ProgramFiles", rather than the default directory "c:\ProgramFiles\JRiver\MediaCenter17" (or something like that).
Not a great choice.  It's a first as far as I recall.  We'll take a look to see what could happen.  Thanks for posting.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up