As you know, Windows XP has to be restored, from time-to-time, because, well… It blows. The update service at Microsoft adds stuff that seems to burden the system. If you install a program, it generally does not clean itself out of the registry. Shareware and freeware programs are especially sinister in this. And, of course, spyware and viruses are rampant.

But this time, it was not their fault. It was mine. I tried a development program on two computers and two got wrecked. I was able to continue using this one, so I did not worry too much about it.

Then came the day when I had to worry too much about it.

I reinstall programs as I need them, so when it came time for Adobe Photoshop Essentials, I received the following error:

DataViz sent me to to the Flexera Software support site. I found, through my research, that I had to find isuninstall.exe or uninstall.exe in the Windows directory and delete them. Which I did. The program started to install until I received the following error:

With some research I found that I some attributed it to Microsoft Antivirus. Since I do not run Microsoft Antivirus, I promptly turned to CA Antivirus, which I have installed. I disconnected from the web, and “snoozed” the antivirus program as well as the spyware program.

The program went through fine.

The only problem was that when I went to install Windows, I somehow installed it over the drive containing my graphics. Need I say backup?

Hope this helps others.