HI,

 

too much obsolete stuff and corrupted files convinced me to do a reinstall of my 6 years old FSX setup. But I ran into an annoying problem: when I run the installer of my FSX Gold Version, starting with Disk 1, it tells me it cannot install because "You cannof upgrade between standard and deluxe versions of FSX, uninstall first" and aborts immediately.

 

I double checked my Installed software list, used CCleaner and ran an MS ulitity that is supposed to fix issues regarding uninstallations. All without success.

 

I am using Win7 64bit.

 

Anyone knows what else I could do? Delete registry entries manually? If so, how do I find them?

Did you uninstall Acceleration first before uninstalling FSX?

There was only one FSX Entry in the Software list showing, and that was Acceleration. I uninstalled it after removing all the Addons. After that, there was no FSX Basic Entry there, therefore I deleted the Folders manually according to the PMDG Guide:

 

http://support.precisionmanuals.com/kb/a87/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-fsx.aspx

and ran CCleaner. After that and restarting the FSX Basic Entry again popped up again, I tried to use the uninstaller, and it told me the program has already been removed and the Entry was deleted.

 

Afterwards I used a Microsoft Tool "MicrosoftProgram_Install_and_Uninstall.meta" which still could locate FSX but "successfully removed" it.

 

Now, neither in the Registry nor in my Explorer there seem to be FSX leftovers, but I still cannot install again but instead get this Cop-like error message....

Did you clean the registry?  If not there might still be (probably will be) remnants of your previous installation.

Reading through your link to PMDG uninstall, in step 3 it said after uninstalling Acceleration you should

have been left with FSX.  I think you missed something.  I have FSX Standard with SP1 and 2.  When I

uninstall I have to uninstall each SP and then FSX.

Did you clean the registry?  If not there might still be (probably will be) remnants of your previous installation.

 

I ran CCleaner multiple times. If I need to remove something else manually or use another tool, than thats what I asked for in this thread.

 

Update: just tried Wise Registry Cleaner without any luck

 

Update 2: my next try involved getting TweakFS Registry Utility and let it search for FSX entries. Indeed, there still was one that specified the path. I deleted it.

 

But I still cant install. This doesn't make any sense to me in a technical way....

I ran CCleaner multiple times. If I need to remove something else manually or use another tool, than thats what I asked for in this thread.

 

Update: just tried Wise Registry Cleaner without any luck

 

CClearner is a great program, but it's not comprehensive in what it removes.   I've had better luck with Revo Uninstaller Pro followed by CCleaner.

 

I recommend looking in the path you initially installed FSX in, as well as AppData\Roaming, ProgramData and My Documents to insure all traces of FSX, or FSX support files have been removed.

 

Then run Regedit and search for any occurrences of FSX or Microsoft Flight Simulator, etc. 

 

Ernie

Thanks for the answers so far, I don't find any traces of FSX anymore whatsoever. I am now deep-formatting the drive FSX was on, just in case that installer is able to identify even the deleted leftovers of some minor effect file.

Really, what was MS thinking while implementing this?

 

Update: after formatting the drive and entering and checking for "flight" "Simulator" and "fsx" in the registry (which as a result only gave me addon contents like ASN, which I didnt uninstall) I am done with all my Ideas. I have a terrible headache after uninstalling hundreds of addons and trying to solve this issue. Looks like I need to quit my FS Career until I either reinstall my whole system or get a better Graphics Card that can handle Prepar3D.

Thanks for the answers so far, I don't find any traces of FSX anymore whatsoever. I am now deep-formatting the drive FSX was on, just in case that installer is able to identify even the deleted leftovers of some minor effect file.

 

Really, what was MS thinking while implementing this?

 

Update: after formatting the drive and entering and checking for "flight" "Simulator" and "fsx" in the registry (which as a result only gave me addon contents like ASN, which I didnt uninstall) I am done with all my Ideas. I have a terrible headache after uninstalling hundreds of addons and trying to solve this issue. Looks like I need to quit my FS Career until I either reinstall my whole system or get a better Graphics Card that can handle Prepar3D.

 

That is why I never plan to reinstall FSX if it goes south that will be it and I will move onto a  brand new P3D install probably on (mostly) new hardware.

 

Bruceb

Just throwing out ideas here - could it be related to this issue?

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/489738-flight-simulator-was-unable-to-load-some-program-files/?hl=%2Bfsx+%2Bfailed+%2Binstall+%2Bfile#entry3433821

There seems to be an "Windows Installer CleanUp Utility" that helped some people with the same issue. Unfortunately MS seems to have it removed from their servers. If anyone knows where I can still get it, id be grateful for it. Thanks.

 

Update: got it, FSX is not shown in the list there. No Luck.

I am still not willing to move to Prepard3D because of that, and not flying anymore means a few thousand Euros spent on addons over the years down the toilet....

 

Are there any real geeks here who can tell what exactly the installer is looking for when started, and, in my case, keeps finding?

When I recently reinstalled, I kept getting a 1607 error. According to Microsoft, it probably was because of FSX remnants. I did all the cleaning as you did. I was told to turn the computer off and then restart it. Problem solved. Sometimes it is something simple. Good luck.

 

Bill W

When I recently reinstalled, I kept getting a 1607 error. According to Microsoft, it probably was because of FSX remnants. I did all the cleaning as you did. I was told to turn the computer off and then restart it. Problem solved. Sometimes it is something simple. Good luck.

 

Bill W

 

I am actually doing a restart everytime I edited the registry. Thanks for the advice anyways. I think despite all the searching I fail to remove one vital information that the installer is looking for.

It nearly drove me crazier.

Does really no one have another idea?