# Uninstall/Installation problem.



## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

OS: Windows 10 64-Bit

So I've been having a problem for a long time, it pops up now and then and makes me just stop trying to install/uninstall a program.

This has happened ever since the upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 64-Bit. The issue was not that large as it only affected the sound card. However since I upgraded some of my headset I'm trying to install my sound card again but I always get a screen that says "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable". It's probably trying to find an old .msi file from the Windows 8.1 which is long gone now.

Now I did a little search on Google and found that people fixed this in the pass using a program called Microsoft Fix-It. However I don't see such a program for Windows 10. Other than my Sound Card, it seems I installed Virtual Box 4.3 on my Windows 8.1, I'm looking to install a new version today and I get the same popup: 










If anyone has any suggestions on where to start troubleshooting I'll be here to try anything.

Thanks,
Daniel


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

> it seems I installed Virtual Box 4.3 on my Windows 8.1


You make it seem like you have no idea what programs are installed on your PC or you installed it so long ago that you forgot about it (because you rarely use it) and now you want to install a newer version (latest?). If you do not have usage for it, why keep it? Anyway, cancel that dialog and download the installation package for version 4.3.12 here and run it, then choose repair or remove. If you choose to repair, open VirtualBox to confirm that it runs without further installation dialogs popping up, then you can upgrade to the latest version.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

Sorry, I did forget to mention that. Most of the programs such as Virtual Box 4.3 don't show up in the uninstall programs list through control panel so I can't tell what is kept. Which implies that the previous programs from 8.1 do not show up as well. I have no idea what this actually means as they do not show up in control panel programs and features nor do they show up in my program files folder. The only thing that I can guess is that these are the programs that I never bothered to upgrade and reinstall after the Windows 10 upgrade.

I ran the file you suggested with administrative rights and get this:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

> Most of the programs such as Virtual Box 4.3 don't show up in the uninstall programs list through control panel so I can't tell what is kept. Which implies that the previous programs from 8.1 do not show up as well. I have no idea what this actually means as they do not show up in control panel programs and features nor do they show up in my program files folder.


While an in-place upgrade of Windows intends to retain your files, settings and installed programs, not all program installations will remain intact, especially versions of those programs that haven't been tested for compatibility with the newer operating system being installed. This is one of the main reasons why a clean/fresh installation of the new operating system and programs is recommended (involves formatting the old Windows partition). It is inconvenient, I know, especially if you don't readily have the installation media and/or license information for your purchased programs, but it minimizes on frustrating scenarios such as the one you are encountering.

Anyway, you can extract the msi file being asked for, from the file you downloaded via the link I provided earlier. You need to do this using Command Prompt (CMD). Open CMD, change to the folder where you saved the downloaded file (Downloads folder) and run *virtualbox.exe -extract*. Refer to https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch02.html for details. You can then point the Windows installer dialog to the extracted msi file.

For example, if you saved the donwloaded file on the desktop, run:


```
CD %userprofile%\desktop

VirtualBox-4.3.12-93733-Win.exe -extract
```
Press enter after each line you type, or copy and paste each line into the CMD window to avoid typing errors.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

When you upgraded to Windows 10, Windows created a folder on your *C:\* drive called *Windows.old*. If you still have this file, if will still have your programs and other personal files in it. So, Search for the file using the path, but substitute *C:\Users...* with *C:\Windows.old\Users\Daniel *etc


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

I don't have the Windows.old folder anymore, I believe I removed it a couple months back. However the method Stancestans said works fully.

I love going back on this forum everytime, you guys have a 100% fix rate for me! So to move forward it seems I have to keep extracting the .msi uninstallation files from future occurrences. So that means the only issue is if a installation file is not available for download and then I would be out of luck. I'll go try this with the SoundBlaster as that was what I messed up a week back so I've been on default factory default drivers for a while.

I'll report back once I finished setting up other programs including the SoundBlaster installation.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

So after installing and uninstalling other programs I finally got down this Saturday to tackle the sound card. However I'm not sure how to handle this issue as I am getting pop-up prompts for finding the correct .msi file despite other uninstalls working using the extraction method.

So let's get down to what I attempted to do when trying to uninstall my Creative Sound Blaster Z driver to install the custom drivers.

1. I started by going onto Device Manager to check for the version number of the existing driver which is 6.0.102.37:








2. I went to find the driver and was able to find it from station-drivers.com: http://www.station-drivers.com/inde...tory&Itemid=352&func=fileinfo&id=1578&lang=en
3. After downloading it to my G:\downloads folder I renamed it to sbzold (to easily type it on cmd administrator for extraction).
4. Changed directory to this folder and typed sbzold.exe -extract onto CMD.
5. After pressing enter I get this window which other programs I have uninstalled never received: 








6. I went ahead and extracted it to that folder.
7. Upon looking into the folder I was able to find a .msi file which originally made me hyped for an uninstall:








8. So I went onto Revo Uninstaller to go ahead and uninstall it. The window before pressing open and OK for G:\downloads\sbzold\Audio\Sound Blaster Z-Series.msi:








9. The windows I'm now stuck on: 

















I'm wondering if I'm missing an important step within my process or if there is something else I should be looking to search for.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

The driver version shown in Device Manager is not the same version as the package Windows Installer is prompting for. Windows Installer is prompting for the source of the package that was installed BEFORE the upgrade. The Windows 8.1 64-bit package on the Creative Support site is *SBZ_CD_L13_1_00_28.exe* dated 12 Dec 2014 and can be downloaded from http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=13339

The driver shown in Device Manager is dated 16 Mar 2015, and must have been installed via Windows Update. There is no package on the Creative Support site dated 16 Mar 2015, which makes me believe the currently installed driver is one of those that Microsoft takes upon themselves to update and distribute via Windows Update. In Windows 10, automatic update is enabled by default and the updates delivered include device drivers. Many will agree that Windows Update is NOT the best place to get device drivers from. You should get drivers from the official support website of your device's manufacturer and nowhere else, even if Windows Update seems to offer a higher version than what's available on the manufacturer's website. Having said that, you shouldn't have downloaded that package from station-drivers.com. Get rid of it, clear your temp folder and download the 12 Dec 2014 package I linked above, but only for use to uninstall the partially installed package (using Revo Uninstaller).

After uninstalling the old package, download the Windows 10 package *SBZ_CD_L13_1_01_03.exe* dated 3 Aug 2015 from http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=13477, but before installing it, do the following;

1. Open Control Panel and search for *device installation settings* and disable the option for searching Windows Update for device drivers. This prevents Windows from searching for drivers in Windows Update when a new hardware device is detected or when you choose the Update option in Device Manager. This setting, however, does not prevent Windows Update from installing device drivers. To prevent Windows Update from installing drivers, a utility called wushowhide is used to hide/unhide updates. More details can be found in the tutorial here and here.

2. Open Device Manager and uninstall the current driver. Check the option to delete the driver software if asked. Reboot. Your sound card should then be detected as a new hardware device, but Windows Update will not be searched for drivers. Install the Windows 10 package linked above instead and your sound card will be installed using that driver.

P.S
Keeping drivers up-to-date is a good thing, but the drivers delivered by Microsoft via 
Windows Update cause problems more often than they should. Unfortunately in Windows 10, MS has made it a lot more harder to control Windows Updates, which is set to automatic by default, especially if you are running the Home edition. In Windows 10 pro and Enterprise, at least you can use group policy to configure Windows Update to not automatically install updates, and use the wushowhide utility to selectively choose which updates should be installed. While you can use wushowhide to hide driver updates in Windows 10 Home, there's no stopping Windows Update from installing their next releases. It's a vicious cycle to say the least.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

Thank you Stancestans. I was able to uninstall and install the new driver for August 3, 2015 successfully.

Upon looking at the list of programs to uninstall I noticed that there is possibly a placebo registry key for Sound Blaster Z left on Revo Uninstaller:








I know this isn't the one I just installed because the new drivers are listed at the top:








Upon trying to uninstall it, I receive this notification:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

rakasan said:


> Thank you Stancestans. I was able to uninstall and install the new driver for August 3, 2015 successfully.
> 
> Upon looking at the list of programs to uninstall I noticed that there is possibly a placebo registry key for Sound Blaster Z left on Revo Uninstaller:
> 
> ...


You can remove that orphaned uninstall entry using several options. I do not have Revo installed, so I'm not sure if it has that option. Right-click the entry and see if such an option is available. Alternatively, open Control Panel > uninstall a program, select the orphaned entry and click uninstall. You should get a similar alert and after it there will be a prompt asking whether you want to remove that uninstall entry.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

Honestly it isn't that much of a big deal, it seems to only show up on Revo Uninstaller but not on "Programs and Features" from Control Panel.

For the right-click context window it only displays this: 








I would assume the only useful step from this would be the Open Registry Key but I obviously don't want to mess around with that since I wouldn't know what to change. Perhaps you can see if one of the values can be changed to make it "hidden":










Other than that I'm looking to uninstall a program that I wasn't able to do similar to the Sound Card. For this I have no idea if it's possible since I can't find where the original drivers are on the internet. It would be Sonic Radar II:








I believe its by Asus and comes within a suite called Asus AI Suite, I do recall using it in the past and it came with incremental updates, so I'm not sure how we would get a specific update for version 2.0.801. Perhaps I would have to open up a ticket through Asus?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

rakasan said:


> Honestly it isn't that much of a big deal, it seems to only show up on Revo Uninstaller but not on "Programs and Features" from Control Panel.
> 
> For the right-click context window it only displays this:
> 
> ...


That registry entry points to software that's no longer installed. It's safe to delete it. The uninstallation should have removed it anyway.

As for that Asus software, just download the latest version available from Asus website and nowhere else and install it. It should update the partially existing version. You do not always have to remove the existing one before installing a newer version. Do that and report back with the results.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

Deleted the registry key successfully and it was gone from Revo Uninstaller's list.

As for Sonic Radar II,
I went ahead and visited Asus's official page for drivers for my motherboard. It seems the Sonic Radar II driver is bundled with the onboard graphics. So I downloaded the first and latest one under "Audio":









Upon extracting the folder and visiting the setup.exe I get the same window asking for the uninstall package:









What the main folder looks like:









Driver's Folder:









Sonic Radar Folder:









I'm not sure if there is anything of use to extract to try and get the SRUIInstall64.msi to get past this window.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

What happens if you cancel that dialog? Does the installation quit?


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

It appears to have installed the main package "Realtek HD Audio Manager" despite pressing cancel. It spit out a successfully installed screen. I remember uninstalling this to make use of the Sound Card to avoid having extra sound devices visible on Volume Mixer.

I have these now:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

rakasan said:


> It appears to have installed the main package "Realtek HD Audio Manager" despite pressing cancel. It spit out a successfully installed screen. I remember uninstalling this to make use of the Sound Card to avoid having extra sound devices visible on Volume Mixer.
> 
> I have these now:


Sonic Radar is bundled and installed together with the Realtek driver package. If the installation completed successfully, then it can be presumed that Sonic Radar was also installed/updated successfully, unless Windows Installer keeps prompting for the installation package.

You can disable the onboard audio controller (Realtek) via BIOS setup and it will appear non-existent in Windows, then you'll only have the SBZ to use.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

Yes it does seems Windows Installing still prompts for the package, I believe it installed the main drivers itself and skipped the Sonic Radar:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Let's try the following:

- Uninstall Realtek Audio drivers and reboot.
- Using Revo uninstaller, forcefully uninstall Sonic Radar ii. Do not select the option to run its inbuilt uninstaller, that will only bring back the Windows Installer prompts. Instead, navigate to the folder where Sonic Radar is installed (in Program Files and/or Program Files (x86)) and point Revo to the Sonic application (launcher).
- Delete all files, folders and registry entries that Revo finds, related to Sonic.
- Manually search for Sonic Radar files and folders to make sure nothing is left behind. I use UltraSearch to find things fast.
- Use the search terms "sonic" and "radar" to find folders and files and get rid of ONLY those that are for Sonic Radar. If you aren't sure which items to delete, you can save the list of results as a text file and attach it here or copy and paste its contents here. Alternatively, UltraSearch has an option to copy the results to clipboard so you can paste them here.

Since you don't intend to use onboard audio, you don't have to reinstall Realtek audio drivers or Sonic Radar.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

Stancestans,

Sorry it's been a while for me to reply. Been really busy, but in any case I did manage to do the first step you said. I got stuck at the second step, what do you mean by to "point Revo to the Sonic application (launcher)."

I do see a file with the words Launcher on it:


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

rakasan said:


> I got stuck at the second step, what do you mean by to "point Revo to the Sonic application (launcher)."
> 
> I do see a file with the words Launcher on it:


Open *Revo Uninstaller*, click *Forced Uninstall*, click the *Browse for* button, select *File* from the drop down list that appears, navigate to the folder where Sonic launcher is (installation location of Sonic Radar), select the Sonic launcher file and click *Open* to proceed. Back in the _Forced Uninstall_ window, select *Advanced* under _Scanning modes_ and click next to proceed. After a while of searching it will list files, folders and registry entries related to Sonic Radar. Select them all for deletion. Reboot just in case some files were locked and could not be deleted. Revo schedules their deletion upon reboot. Proceed with the other steps.


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## rakasan (Dec 13, 2010)

Finished the steps above. 
For UltraSearch I did both queries and I only found an .ink file which I believe is a shortcut.

As for the sound device, I do recall disabling Realtek long ago on BIOS as that was how it originally detected my hardware, as two sound devices cause issues with this sound card. Despite saying that I'm confused on how I am getting this message now (which usually appears when Realtek is still installed/not shut off from BIOS).









And then the window behind is just a blank control panel:








Device Manager is now showing SB Recon3D:








Should I try to repeat your steps but this time for Recon3D or perhaps reinstall the sound card drivers?


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

If you haven't already, change *device installation settings* to prevent automatic installation of drivers from Windows Update (online). The wordings on that dialog have changed in the anniversary update, but the result is the same. You can find additional literature and illustrations on this page. Please note that this setting does not prevent the Windows Update client/program from installing drivers. To prevent that, you have to disable automatic updates (Google how) and then selectively choosing which updates you want installed and which ones to skip, by hiding those you don't want using the *wushowhide* utility (Google it). It's fortunate that you are running Windows 10 Pro as it allows some control over Windows Update, unlike the Home edition. You may wanna research more about automatic updates in Windows 10, to better understand what you've gotten into and what you must now do to keep your sanity and your hardware devices working as they should. Many will agree here that Windows Update is not the best source of device drivers, and that you should ALWAYS install drivers from the support website of your computer's manufacturer or the device's manufacturer as is the case with your sound card.

Your SB Z series is being misidentified as SB Recon3D, most likely as a result of drivers being automatically installed from and/or by Windows Update, hence the long paragraph above. The thread here discussed the same issue.

Change device installation settings and Windows Update settings as earlier instructed, then in Device Manager, right-click and uninstall both the SB Recon3D and Sound Blaster Z devices. If asked whether to delete their driver files, check that option. 

Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features and uninstall the Sound Blaster software and any other software associated with the SB Z card. 

Shutdown, unplug power from the system unit and detach the SBZ. Reset CMOS by using the appropriate jumper or remove its battery for five seconds. This will effectively reset bios settings to default, which also means the onboard audio controller will be enabled. With the SBZ card still detached, power on the system, set BIOS settings as desired (including date and time) and disable onboard graphics. Save the changes and shutdown. Unplug the power and install the SB Z card. Turn on the system and boot into Windows. The SB Z should now be listed in Device Manager, but not correctly installed due to non-existent drivers, so it should be marked with a yellow exclamation mark. Reinstall its driver package that you had initially downloaded from the Creative website. Reboot if prompted. The card should now be correctly identified and working with the correct drivers and not those installed by or from Windows Update. 

If you do not stop Windows Update from installing drivers, this cycle is gonna repeat and it's gonna be a real headache. I know that Microsoft's intent was noble as far as automatic updates are concerned in Windows, but I find the new approach quite forceful hence the need to actively try and regain as much control over what updates are installed as possible. You'll get the hang of it eventually, but for now, this is the only way. I have little hope that MS will restore user control to how it was in previous versions, so it's up to users to find a way around this. I personally don't mind manually checking for updates, hiding those I do not want and installing those I want if all that effort saves me the trouble of troubleshooting and fixing a broken device among other things.


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