Weird Installation Problem

[JonRD463 146]

Hi all.I've had FSX installed on my comp since the last time I did a system reset about 6 months ago or so. About 4 months ago, I decided to take a break from simming, but left the program installed. Recently, I've wanted to play around with it some more and noticed that it was running pretty sluggishly. I figured due to lack of use and because of program installations and removals in the meantime, the FSX files had become "buried" on the disk and were taking longer to access. It also didn't help that my disk was fragmented six ways from Sunday. So, my plan was to uninstall, defrag, and reinstall. The first two steps went fine. Trying to reinstall, however, has been frustrating. I keep getting "Error: -1625 This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administrator." The problem is, I AM the administrator! My individual user account has full Administrator rights. I've also tried logging in under the actual Administrator account and get the same error. I went through my registry and removed all instances of "Flight Simulator" and "FSX", but still no go. Another problem is the installation program is treating this as an upgrade rather than a fresh install, which lead me to consider residual bits in the registry. That didn't help. In fact, now when I click on Setup.exe, it says "This setup will perform an upgrade of 'oÅw'. Do you want to continue?"My last attempt to resolve this was to copy the entirety of Disk 1 to my HDD and try it from there. Getting the same thing. The disk itself-- in fact, both disks-- are in mint condition. No scratches, smears, fingerprints, or dust. I am at a complete loss here. Anyone ever see this before?EDITED TO ADD: I'm using Vista 32 on a AMD 9950 Phenom Quad. 4 GB RAM and an ATI 4850 1GBThanks!

[JonRD463 146]

Well, I've scoured the net and I'm apparently the only person to ever have this problem, or at least have it and seek help online. I'm beginning to think a fresh system reset is in order. It's just that aside from this problem, my system is in very good shape. I'd hate to have to go to that extreme, but no other solution seems to be out there.

[Sharrow 0]

I would get hold of CCleaner and do a registry clean. You can then open REGEDIT and do a manual search for "FSX" to see if anything comes up. Once you are sure that all FSX entries in your registry are gone create a folder at the root of your C drive called "FSX" (without the quotes of course) and point the installer there as opposed to installing in the default directory.

[JonRD463 146]

I would get hold of CCleaner and do a registry clean. You can then open REGEDIT and do a manual search for "FSX" to see if anything comes up. Once you are sure that all FSX entries in your registry are gone create a folder at the root of your C drive called "FSX" (without the quotes of course) and point the installer there as opposed to installing in the default directory.

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I've done all that you suggested already. CClean, searching for registry entries pointing to FSX, Flight Simulator X, etc. I can't do the FSX folder trick because of the Error 1625 that halts the installation process.

[Sharrow 0]

Try disabling UAC perhaps and when installing FSX right click on it and select run as admin. Just do not install in default directory whatever else you do.

[Guest firehawk44]

Hi all.I've had FSX installed on my comp since the last time I did a system reset about 6 months ago or so. About 4 months ago, I decided to take a break from simming, but left the program installed. Recently, I've wanted to play around with it some more and noticed that it was running pretty sluggishly. I figured due to lack of use and because of program installations and removals in the meantime, the FSX files had become "buried" on the disk and were taking longer to access. It also didn't help that my disk was fragmented six ways from Sunday. So, my plan was to uninstall, defrag, and reinstall. The first two steps went fine. Trying to reinstall, however, has been frustrating. I keep getting "Error: -1625 This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administrator." The problem is, I AM the administrator! My individual user account has full Administrator rights. I've also tried logging in under the actual Administrator account and get the same error. I went through my registry and removed all instances of "Flight Simulator" and "FSX", but still no go. Another problem is the installation program is treating this as an upgrade rather than a fresh install, which lead me to consider residual bits in the registry. That didn't help. In fact, now when I click on Setup.exe, it says "This setup will perform an upgrade of 'oÅw'. Do you want to continue?"My last attempt to resolve this was to copy the entirety of Disk 1 to my HDD and try it from there. Getting the same thing. The disk itself-- in fact, both disks-- are in mint condition. No scratches, smears, fingerprints, or dust. I am at a complete loss here. Anyone ever see this before?EDITED TO ADD: I'm using Vista 32 on a AMD 9950 Phenom Quad. 4 GB RAM and an ATI 4850 1GBThanks!

There are a lot of Google hits for "This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administrator" and they all point to not having administrative rights to install. Konrad is right about turning off UAC. I would also turn off any anti-virus software until the installation is finished. You state you are the Administrator of your computer but you, as Administrator, have to turn off some of the security in place. I personally have turned off UAC and have never turned it back on. So it has nothing to do with your FSX disks. You just have to turn off some of the security you have in place that prevents you from possibly installing a piece of malicious software or doing harm to your computer system. Good luck!Best regards,Jim

[JonRD463 146]

There are a lot of Google hits for "This installation is forbidden by system policy. Contact your system administrator" and they all point to not having administrative rights to install. Konrad is right about turning off UAC. I would also turn off any anti-virus software until the installation is finished. You state you are the Administrator of your computer but you, as Administrator, have to turn off some of the security in place. I personally have turned off UAC and have never turned it back on. So it has nothing to do with your FSX disks. You just have to turn off some of the security you have in place that prevents you from possibly installing a piece of malicious software or doing harm to your computer system. Good luck!Best regards,Jim

Thanks, Jim, but I already did all that. UAC has been off since day 1 of my install of Vista, and I've checked and doublechecked to make sure it hasn't been turned on by other software. I've run Malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware, SpyBot S&D, and AdAware until absolutely no hits were received. I've ensured both my individual account and Admin accounts have full, unfettered file access. I've right-clicked and "Run as Administrator." I've seen all those Google hits and tried everything I could from about the first 3 pages of Google results and nada. I think somewhere along the way I've corrupted my registry. The bad part about doing a system wipe is backing up all my data. I wasn't looking forward to burning a stack of DVDs. The good news is I've got half a terabyte of free space, so I just created a new partition and am now waiting for all my backup data to move over. Once that's done, I'm going to wipe the primary partition and reinstall windows. Might as well get it over with, eh?I appreciate the suggestions, everyone.