Vista's Labyrinth: VISTA'S LABYRINTH: Could not access network %APPDATA%\.

J

jdeemark

New Member
The Problem: For the most part, I am unable to Install software or programs on my Acer Laptop. I can download them, but I can NOT INSTALL them. It's not as simple as it may seem. Read on.

The What: I have an Acer Aspire 5315-2713 Laptop that runs on a Windows Vista Home Basic [Service Pack 1 (6.0.6001.18000 Driver Version) ] 32-bit operating system. The laptop has an Intel Celeron dual-core (x86 family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13) processor T1400 @ 1.73 Ghz. I use Internet Explorer Version: 7.0.6001.18000 and Mozilla Firefox Version 3.0.5 , I have Windows Installer 4.0.6001.1800 , The laptop has 2 User accounts, one I titled 'General' (not an administrator) and the other I titled 'Administrator' (which is the actual administrator). All of the following problems occurred with user 'General'.

My Newbie Attempts:

Problem noticed when I tried to install Adobe Photoshop CS2 using cd, past weekend (Feb 7). When I tried to install the program first time, I cancelled installation at end because: At end of a photoshop installation, you are asked for serial code to verify authentic purchase. However, code I was entering wasn't working which is why I cancelled installation. At later time same day, I tried to install the program again, but this time it did not even get to the last part (where I am asked for serial). It failed about 20 s after Windows Installer initiated and following message appeared in popup, "Could not access network %APPDATA%\." exactly like this w/out quotes. I pressed OK button on popup and another popup appeared with same message. I pressed OK a second time and that was it.

I am not sure when the problem truly began because the last time I installed a program (which was SSH Secure Shell Client) was earlier in the same week (Feb2-4). Anything could have happened between the time I installed SSH and the time I tried to install Photoshop (Feb 6).

I have read several articles online including the following below, but I'm still unable to resolve the problem: I have listed the links I followed and the steps I took below: I WILL REALLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP. THANKS!

At the end of each step, I also wrote the name of User that carried out that step within brackets. Note that when I used User 'General' to perform a task that only the Administrator could theoretically carry out, I was asked to enter the administrator password.
 
Vista's Labyrinth PART II

1. I tried installing another program to see whether or not Photoshop was problem. Successfully downloaded web browser, Safari, but failed at installing it. The Windows Installer failed and the same messages appeared as before. [General]

2. I googled these links: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/msi1606.htm and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886549. I did realize and affirm that error I got did NOT include the words "Error 1606". The message was EXACTLY as I posted earlier above. [General]

3. Nonetheless, I tried to using instructions from Microsoft Support page (^2nd link) to correct my registry. After attempting to fix just 2 values and names for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders while following instructions TO THE LETTER, I checked my desktop and start button to see if all was right. The My Documents option from Start was gone and after attempting to find it everywhere and not finding it, I realized that I did not know what the heck I was doing to my registry. [General]

4. At this point, I realized I could try to do a system restore to an earlier date. My computer regularly backs up, and fortunately, I was able to restore laptop settings to Feb 4 settings. My Documents and other things that had disappeared now returned. I tried to install Photoshop, but Windows Installer failed after 20 s and same error messages appeared. I downloaded Safari and then tried to install it. It failed and got same messages. [General]

5. I looked at the link-- http://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/fo...3E814E98E5C912?postID=10419411&ie=x#e10419411 and attempted to identify problems. The values and names in HK_CURRENT_USERS\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders seem to be good. The AppData name in the HK_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders also seems to have the correct value, but I don't have enough confidence to say the same for other names in this key, but they also seem alright. I also checked the keys HK_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment and HK_USERS\DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders and both seem to be good. [General]

6. Next, it gets interesting. I tried to make more controls in my experiment to see what I couldn't and what I could install. I successfully downloaded Windows Live Messenger 8.1, Safari, Irfanview, Google Chrome, and several video files. Although the video files played, the software that successfully installed includes Irfanview, Windows Live Messenger 8.1, and GoogleChrome, and Windows Movie Maker 2.6. Why? Google Chrome uses a "Google Chrome Installer" and I'm not sure what exactly IrfanView used. It gets even more interesting. Windows Live Messenger 8.1 and Windows Movie Maker used Windows Installer successfully! Everything successfully uninstalled except IrfanView for which I got the popup message "Can't find IrfanView folder! IrfanView is not installed". I manually deleted all IrfanView files. [General]

7. The problems still exist with Adobe photoshop and Safari. So next, I decided to see what I could uninstall from my laptop that was already there. I only tried Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (which was preinstalled onto my laptop). It would NOT successfully uninstall and I got the same error messages as earlier. This time, though, the error message DID INCLUDE the words "Error 1606" immediately before the rest of the message. The entire message was posted twice. [General]
 
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Vista's Labyrinth PART III

8. Tried Installing Google Earth 5.0 with IE and Mozilla Firefox via Google Updater. Same runaround on both. Download finished, but installation failed via Google Updater. Then I was given a choice by Google Updater to use another way to install Google Earth 5.0 via Google Earth Installer. This also failed & I was given the error message: "Installation failed. Pleast Try Again. Error Code = 0x80040905" w/out quotes. [General]

9. I deleted the "RECENT" key from HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/User Shell Folders. I tried installing Safari and uninstalling Microsoft Office 2007. Both failed and resulted in the same error messages that I got for them earlier. [General]

10. I was led to this link http://groups.google.es/group/google-earth-browser-plugin/browse_thread/thread/9ca1abfa6de7db14 which led to me to this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 so I downloaded Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. I downloaded it, but it failed to run or install. I recieved a Widnows Script Host message. containing the following. I used ";" to indicate new lines in the message. Script: C: Users\PCADMI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\IXP000.TMP\StartMsi.vbs ; Line: 17 ; Char: 1 Error: Permission denied ; Code: 800A0046 ; Source: Microsoft VBScript runtime error . This error did not reappear when I reran the program, this time by right-clicking the downloaded file and choosing the "run as Administrator" option. But this time, I got something else. YES, it was the Error 1606 message and twice and then a error popup message with the header "Fatal Error" and message "Installation ended prematurely because of an error."[Administrator]

11. Lastly, I found the two links http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_1...D=2973120&tag=forums06;search-results#2973120 and http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6121_102-0.html?forumID=45&threadID=104829&messageID=1200161. After reading these links, I really wan't to make changes to my registry because as far as I (the newbie) knows, some keys don't have correct values with the associated names, but I don't want to cause any more errors. The last time I edited registry keys, I ended up performing a system restore because I couldn't find My Documents folder.

12. My last actions include downloading Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable (version: Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu) which successfully Installed. I tested the new Installers' functionability by running Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, but the Utlity failed with the same 1606 error message. I need HELP to make it out of this Maze!

Addition: I just tried using Adobe Reader 9. It used to work fine; While it still works on General, it won't work at all on Administrator. I get the error message: "An internal error occurred".
 
Vista's Labyrinth PART FINALE

I have included links to 8 key folders in my registry, 4 as seen by Administrator and 4 as seen by General. Please see the links:

Registry as seen in Administrator:
View ALL 4 Administrator Key folders in SINGLE file (it will show the 4 keys in the order they are shown below): http://www.scribd.com/doc/12358712/Admin-Total
OR view as Separate files:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12355590/Admin-CU-Shell
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12355591/Admin-CU-UserShell
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12355592/Admin-LM-Shell
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12355593/Admin-LM-Usershell

Registry as seen in General:
View ALL 4 Keys folders in SINGLE file (it will show the 4 keys in the order they are shown below): http://www.scribd.com/doc/12358715/Gen-Total
OR view as Separate files:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12358428/Gen-CU-Shell
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12358429/Gen-CU-UserShell
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12358430/Gen-LM-Shell
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders http://www.scribd.com/doc/12358431/Gen-LM-UserShell
 
Photoshop CS2 Vista compatibility

I just got wind from another forum that Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Vista are not essentially compatible. I have confirmed this from several reliable websites. I was then led to the conclusion that the problem can be fixed via a Microsoft Virtual PC installation and then an XP installation into that. However, Adobe is obviously the least of my worries as it seems several other programs are malfunctioning (i.e. unable to install, uninstall, or run them). Please see my first 3 posts for more information.
 
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