Error 82

[PVnRT]

I have been trying to clean my laptop up by removing some older programs. Whenever I try to remove programs, though, I either get "Error 82: The directory could not be created" or "Could not find INSTALL.LOG" or some other error along those lines, depending on the program. I shelled out money for a program called RegCure that fixed some other issues, but did nothing for this?

Beyond learning my lesson and NEVER EVER buying a laptop again so long as I live, how do I fix this?

[Gore1FL]

1. One way...

...and this is a bit umm fucked up...

Delete the files and the run regedit and look in HKCU and HCLM and delete the registry entries.

[RoyGBiv]

2. What is your operating system?

You've got a few issues on your machine, it seems. Judging from this and your other post about Firefox, I'm thinking some rather detailed issues. Specs would help.

It has nothing to do with the fact it is a laptop, FWIW.

[PVnRT]

4. I know it's not the laptop...

...it's just frustrating to have a machine work great for a year and a half and then suddenly go weird, without having any idea what I've done to it.

As for specs:

Acer Aspire 5100
Windows XP 5.1.2600 SP 2.0
1 GB RAM
1595 MHz AMD Turion 64

[RoyGBiv]

5. Have you emptied your temp directory lately?

I don't mean remove temporary files. I mean remove all the files in the temp directory, which is probably located at c:\windows\temp. Several subdirectories may exist there as well.

[PVnRT]

6. Yes, except for the three files it claims are in use

Beyond that, there's nothing in there, and it didn't seem to solve the problem.

As a note, installing things is not an issue; only uninstalling, and I get either the Error 82, a note that the INSTALL.LOG file could not be found, or the uninstaller just kind of gives up.

[RoyGBiv]

7. Okay ...

As mentioned previously, I think you have a few issues here, and I don't know that I could diagnose them all without a lot of information.

But I somehow missed your comment about the install.log previously ... or forgot it or something. Anyway, this is gonna sound weird, but if you can, whatever it is you're trying to uninstall, reinstall it first. Then uninstall it. Some programs need (or demand anyway) the uninstall.log file in order to uninstall, which should have been created when the program was installed. It may have been deleted somewhere along the line.

That will work with some things, but not for everything. The uninstaller for any given program could also be poorly constructed so that it is looking for the install.log file in the wrong place, for example if you installed the file in a non-default location or just because the programmers were sloppy generally.

For your Firefox issue, I'd recommend backing up your bookmarks (the bookmarks.html file buried in your profile directory) somewhere on the hard drive, then uninstalling Firefox and wiping out the profile directory completely. Then install Firefox 3. Same with Adobe for your Flash player, but do this *after* you reinstall Firefox.

Lemme know if any of that helps.

[hobbit709]

3. I agree with Roy

What OS. And which programs did you try to remove and how? Did you just delete them or uninstall them. This has nothing to do with it being a laptop.