Two Of My Programs Are A Bit Screwed Up

I was trying to uninstall something earlier with ZSoft, and two of my programs (nothing to do with the one I'd originally intended to uninstall) had red x's beside them, SolveigMM Video Splitter and Task Killer. Apparently, that means that ZSoft "*thinks* that the uninstall-string for the app does not work".

http://www.zsoft.dk/index/faq#8

MaxTurner recommended uninstalling and reinstalling the programs so that a proper uninstall link could be restored. Unfortunately, that's not working properly. When I try uninstalling one of the programs, Task Killer, with geek, I keep getting a message that says the uninstallation process failed and would I like to clear the program from the registry and clean up its files. Once I do that, though, I still find Task Killer folders and files left when I search with Everything. I manually delete those folders and files and reinstall Task Killer but I just get the same problem again. When I look it up with ZSoft, it's still got a red x beside it. Trying to uninstall it AGAIN with geek results in the same uninstallation process failed problem, and if I try to uninstall through the control panel, I'm told I don't have sufficient access to uninstall Task Killer and I need to contact my system administrator (me), which would take forever as I'm notoriously difficult to reach. If I try uninstalling SolveigMM Video Splitter through the control panel, I'm told there was an error because it was already uninstalled, even though it's not uninstalled. It's still working. Could someone tell me how to fix these two programs? They're the only ones on the ZSoft list with red x's and I've obviously ****ed up their installation procedures somehow.

 

Actually no, I didn't recommend what you precisely said there.
If an uninstall.exe file is missing or corrupted (only you will know that based on examining the files on your system) a simple reinstall (without even attempting uninstall) is the normal troubleshooting step, since that will restore a working uninstall.exe file.
If that doesn't work for you then something else is wrong on your system.
But if in reality, those programs have been uninstalled but just have left over entries, then you just need to clear them out.
I don't use ZSoft, so I can't judge either from usage or the limited information on its website whether it's any good but I personally wouldn't use it. There are better uninstallers.

 

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you then. I just assumed you meant uninstall first. I've never before considered reinstalling without first uninstalling so I just took that as a given.

EDIT: Actually, I may be misremembering. I can't remember whether when I first tried reinstalling, I tried uninstalling first or not. It was several hours ago so it's gone out of my head now. Anyway, just tried reinstalling without first uninstalling Task Killer and it didn't work. There's still a red x beside it. I'll try reinstalling Solveig now.

 

Yes you misread this sentence in your original thread:

That means you have to install again over what you already have precisely in order to restore a missing or broken uninstall.exe file.
If you were able to uninstall it first that next step wouldn't make any sense.
It is actually a very common way of sorting out such a problem, and you shouldn't take anything as a given unless you are told that.

 

I think what I misunderstood was that I thought it was just a problem with ZSoft. I didn't realize at the time I'd have a problem uninstalling with something else. Anyway, I just reinstalled Solveig and that's fixed. No more red x. But there's still one beside Task Killer. What should I try next?

 

Do you want the Task Killer program, or not?
If you actually want it, reinstall it from a fresh download , over the existing installation then just carry on.
If you don't want it, do as above, restart the system, then uninstall it fully with something decent like Revo Uninstaller or Absolute Uninstaller or Geek Uninstaller making sure you choose for the uninstaller to remove all left over files and entries. Then restart the system and run CCleaner, cleaner and registry scan and fix.

 

I want it. I just wanna fix whatever it is I've screwed up to cause there to be a red x beside it in ZSoft. I've tried reinstalling it over the existing installation but although that worked with Solveig Video Splitter (red x turned to green tick), there's still a red x beside Task Killer.

EDIT: So my problem is even if I did want to uninstall it, I can't. Because even if I do a fresh install without uninstalling, that doesn't get rid of the red x so I can't properly uninstall.

 

Yep.

 

lol Thanks for the info. I'll just delete it then.