Can anyone help with this?
Recently, MS decided to run its automatic update for several service packs:
–Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (KB110806) –Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 (KB929300) –Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 1.1 Service Pack 1 (KB928366)
These updates have failed several times. no amount of re-downloading and running the install works. The result is that certain mission-critical software applications won’t open (e.g., QuickBooks). I’m stuck in a cycle of turning off the computer, rebooting, waiting for updates to install…and then no avail. Repairing the software doesn’t work.
Ideas?
Nukage!
The problem, when this happened to me, was c:\windows\installer.
Create a new directory c:\installer-old Move all files from c:\windows\installer to c:\installer-old. Reboot. Try downloading again.
The problem: the Windows installer sometimes gets caught in a loop of extracting and re-extracting some service packs or automatic updates. This results in hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of directories under c:\windows\installer. Removing them resolves the issue, but some program installers may lose uninstall information. Once you are sure that Windows runs normally, you may delete c:\installer-old.
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Matthew P. Barnson
Major Issues
It seems that the MS .NET Framework doesn’t want to make nice with the updates, and in scouring the web others are having the same issues (their software won’t open).
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923100
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2784366&SiteID=1
Based on the date of the MS post, it seems I’m not alone in dealing with their update crap. In talking to their customer support, I wasted an hour listening to some idiot not know what they were talking about as we blindly screwed around with my machine.
I have two separate systems, on completely separate networks in completely separate locations, which have independently failed to install the .NET Framework. As a result, they both won’t run mission-critical software.
This is way messed up. Let’s hope that solution provided above works.
Not Windows Installer
Matt,
From Sam’s description of the problem and the links he provided, I don’t think nuking the Windows installer directory’s gonna help. I think there’s a major flaw somewhere in the Dot Net installers that causes it to go haywire. When Microsoft states that there’s an across-the-board problem with all versions of the Framework, regardless of OS, that tells me someone somewhere made a big boo-boo which is just now coming to light. And that they can’t release anything to fix it, but instead are advising people to uninstall EVERYTHING and giving clean-up instructions??? I’d love to hear a technical description of what’s really wrong.
Of course, MS’s overly general nuke-and-reinstall could be just their simplest option, as opposed to tailoring a patch for the multitudes of OSes out there running the Framework.
I know Sammy’s probably ready to throw his machines out of the window, but there is some humor to be found that MS released some buggy software that is preventing people from running TurboTax so close to the IRS deadline.
My $.02 Weed
Fixed, with no help from MS
With no help from the $%^&!@#$ people who created the problem, I was able to follow the wonderful fellow’s removal tool and get .NET Framework off my system. After using a cleansing tool for both temp files and registry, everything came back to normal. Restoration also required moving the installer directory back to its original location.
I thought, who needs the .NET Framework anyway? But apparently it’s necessary for certain software, such as QB, so I had to actually reinstall the Frameworks. What a pain in the *&#.
On an aside, I’m still sitting with 1.2GB of data in my installer directory, which according to Matt seems too big. Wondering if there’s a way to clean that file directory up?
I have 3 GB
I control my own updates using WSUS, so I may have more installed than is normal, but my installer directory totals over 3GB.
I wouldn’t sweat the size. Disk space is cheap.
Matt’s suggestion of moving the installer directory is what you do when the automatic updates aren’t working correctly. If you get to the point where you manually download a patch and it still doesn’t work, then mucking with the installer directory isn’t the answer. And if you move it, it’ll recreate itself, but you’ll have to redownload all the patches and such again.
Bandwidth isn’t as cheap as disk space.
If only Microsoft could come up with a way that the entire computing world could review their code and make changes/fixes/suggestions as needed. Imagine if they could harness the collective power of the internet that way…if only.
My $.02 Weed
It’s like…
That would be, like, Linux or BSD dude…
I’m currently working on my Linux-based workstation. I recently upgraded through two major releases — the equivalent of going from Windows XP SP1 to Windows Vista — on my Ubuntu box without a single problem…
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Matthew P. Barnson
QB Confirms That MS Screws Up
I am validated. Apparently, this is at national epidemic status. I was not alone.
In the grand scale of things — how many major software companies had to issue a full-scale release on the Microsoft gaffe? How quickly did the engineer team at Microsoft get fired? Think of all the lost productivity hours nationwide.
Matt, you can determine whether the following copyright protected work should be pulled, based on potential infringement status, as this was part of the email delivered to me last last night from the QuickBooks team.
********************* Dear QuickBooks 2008 customer,
We have discovered that a recent Microsoft Windows update may be triggering problems for some users of QuickBooks 2008 software. When the problem occurs, QuickBooks does not open.
Common symptoms include the following: 1.The QuickBooks splash screen flashes, and then disappears. OR 2.On launch of QuickBooks, an error message reports that the Web Connector has failed to initialize and QuickBooks does not open.
It turns out that the Microsoft update introduced a problem in the .NET 2.0 Framework…The best thing to do is to go to the source of the problem, so you will need to remove and reinstall the .NET 2.0 Framework. To help walk you through it, we have provided detailed instructions in our QuickBooks Knowledge Base that provides some easy to follow steps and also includes additional links to the Microsoft site:
http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/pages/knowledgebasearticle/1009275
We are continuing to work on this issue and if we find out anything new, we will be sure to let you know right away. *********************
Assumption…
I’d assume the Quickbooks team would want this information distributed as widely as possible.
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Matthew P. Barnson