Well,
I ran the reg file and rebooted and tried the Java installer again, but with the same messages as before.

No luck

Yes... I determined that you were going to have the same problem.. I can't believe this. I spent all this time finding these keys on Windows XP, and then as soon as I went over to Vista to see if it had the same effect. It doesn't. On Vista it is looking somewhere else to determine if it is already installed and I am trying to trace that down now.

Ok.. I finally got it..

Please revisit my previous post and re-download the new reg fix file that is attached. It has been updated again to include one more place in the registry that needs to be removed.

I was able to reproduce your problem on a Vista machine. The problem is caused by the Windows Installer Cleanup utility. it SHOULD NOT BE USED to fix a Java installation problem on Windows Vista. It breaks the Java installation program from working properly because it leaves orphaned entries in the registry.

The registry fix I have posted should fix the problem and allow you to reinstall Java 6 Update 14.

Good luck.

Yesss !!!

You guys are amazing !!!

Big hands to appleoddity and all the others who helped to reolve this for me !
I'm in awe of your expertise, and grateful for your patience, perseverance and ability to pinpoint and resolve this strange problem

BIG THANKS TO YOU !!

No problem.. Now, to see what to do about this thread so that the instructions are clear for other people who have problems with this issue.

Great job, both of you


AppleOddity, I was thinking on a little experiement, if you are up to it

You posted that you were able to reproduce the problem. I wonder if Ccleaner would
have found the orphaned registry key's if using the registry cleaner part of Ccleaner.

If it does find them, it would be good to know

Its a good experiment. But, unfortunately I can not perform it. The "test" machine was a production system to put it plainly. Its now out the door.

Its possible that it could've identified the problem. And, if I think about it, the next time I have a chance to work with Vista (Vista and I do not co-exist well), I will produce the problem again and see if that fixes it, or at least identifies it.

The actual technical problem that happens with Vista and the installer clean-up tool is that the tool works like it is supposed to. It removes the installer information for Java and causes it no longer to show up in add/remove programs, nor able to be uninstalled. But, it does not remove the registry key that the Java installer looks for to see if it is already installed. So, if Java sees that registry key, it insists that it is still installed, so you only get the option to "reinstall" it. In order to "reinstall" it, it tries to invoke the current installer information for the version of Java installed, which, thanks to the installer clean-up tool, is no longer present.

Its a problem with the Java installer that should not even exist. It has no business what so ever looking at a completely irrelevant section of the registry to determine if it is already installed. It should be looking at that windows installer information, and that is it. If the files and registry entries that exist to uninstall, or reinstall the program are not present it sure as heck shouldn't be trying to use them. It should just install fresh.

Now that I think about it.. I might be able to reproduce this problem on XP, in which case I can run it on a virtual machine here in a little bit and get back with you. I was thinking that it only behaved this way on Vista, but I may have missed something that I just thought of which would cause it to act up on XP also.

Sounds great, thanks

Really curious as to wether CCleaner will find it or not. More if I happen to run into
it again. I don't have a Vista here at home, so I mostly know the basics, and thats about
it.

Its confirmed that this problem does exist the same on XP as it does on Vista. I was mistaken when I said it looks in a different spot on Vista.

The Java installer looks for the windows installer information and information under the JavaSoft key in the registry to determine if it is installed. The windows installer cleanup removed the installer information but does not remove the JavaSoft key.

Running CCleaner and testing for all recognized problems in the registry, and selecting to FIX ALL problems that it found still did not resolve the issue, nor did it identify any problems with anything related to java except for an invalid plugin registry entry.

So, sorry Abydos, it does not fix the problem. I'm going to summarize this thread over in the tech tip area and post the registry fix there. I did a lot of searching on this problem and could not find a solution so I think it is valuable to know.

Ok, and thanks for the try.

Yes, it is valueable info. I couldn't find anything on it either, on any search-engine, besides the
hotfix for XP in KB page.

Please see fix here: http://forums.whatthetech.com/Java_Setup_P...em_t104537.html

All other information I posted in this thread related to fixing this problem has been removed because it was found to be incomplete or incorrect.

The link to the fix in the Tech Tips area has been provided instead.

This post has been edited by appleoddity: Jun 25 2009, 09:02 PM

Well done

Ken, the Java cleanup reg file would be an excellent addition to Windows Made Easy XP - Advanced and maybe have Doug create a Windows Made Easy Vista - Advanced forum and put it there as well.

Looks like you could move the one you posted the link to pretty much asis.

What do you think?

Well, because it didn't apply to one specific operating system. And was more specific to Java. I felt it was a good place just in the general tech tip area. My other reasoning is that I want people to be able to reply to it in the future if they need an updated fix for a newer version of Java. I'm not sure that non-techs can post in the tech tip areas can they? Except for the general area?

Anyways, it doesn't matter to me where it is apart from the above concerns.

I believe anyone can read the Tech Tips area, but only Techs and Admins can post there.

It's fine where it is. At least it 's search able.