So i was uninstalling some old programs from my computer yesterday, and deleting some useless files and folders. Since then, whenever I try to do anything that has to do with Windows programs, I keep getting a Windows Installer box, preparing the install of Office. After the progress bar for the installer goes to 100%, either it starts over, or just closes, and I get an illegal operation for either Explorer, or whatever i was trying to run (like taskmgr...)

One of the folders I attempted to delete was for outlook express, as I do not use it. Maybe this could be the culprit?

I would have done a repair install of windows, but my install files are on an ISO, and Nero also suffers from the illegal operations...

I cannot boot to windows normally, I am running from Safe Mode. I also have Fedora installed on another disk, but for some reason the driver for my wireless card disappeared, I will be trying to remedy that.


Please help?? <insert sad puppy face here>

is it ose.exe?

uhh, i have 3 files currently in "%programfiles%\outlook express":
msimn.exe
msoe.dll
wabimp.dll

quote:

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Originally posted by Voldemort
is it ose.exe?

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Thanks Cookie, but I have already tried that.

I have the 2003 disk, but the installer crashes when it tries to autorun. I cannot access Explorer within Windows, either to manually copy files (I could try in Linux...)

oh, and I have an XP home CD, but I don't know how useful it will be

Other things to try:

Reinstall Windows Installer (can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/ )

Reinstall Outlook Express...

reinstalled Installer, no change. I can't find OE on the downloads site, only security updates

I don't know if this can help :

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/downloads...e6sp1/default.mspx  (Comes with outlook express)

or :

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/E-mail/E-ma...look-Express.shtml

OE only.

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
I doubt it... osa.exe is the most useless file ever which does actually nothing but sitting in memory (well it makes that you could have a nice old fashioned old looking office toolbar and that office programs are started up 1ms faster)...

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neither of those links work, it's saying a newer version is already installed. I'm gonna go into linux now, see if i can fix ndiswrapper, and maybe burn the XP pro iso to do a repair install.

Thanks for your help so far people

k, i'm on linux now at least

MeEtc,

Official "How to obtain and install OE":
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B270696

Official "How to manually remove and reinstall OE":
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B263837

(= in first 5 links of google search 'reinstall outlook express')

quote:

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Originally posted by Voldemort

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
I doubt it... osa.exe is the most useless file ever which does actually nothing but sitting in memory (well it makes that you could have a nice old fashioned old looking office toolbar and that office programs are started up 1ms faster)...

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i had the same problem... the file was named ose.exe... was not able to fix

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hey cookie, does osa do something every time you try to open a document? or is it just one of those startup daemons that force a cache of a program in memory?

The main purpose is to keep some common stuff initilized (aka: memory used wasted) used by Office so that Office applications start up a bit quicker.

But you really wont notice the difference if I may say so (especially on the fast PCs of today)...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/165071
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290144

and, thanks to the very clever paging system, it all gets paged to the hard disk anyway talk about an episode in pointlessness.

OK, So I have done a repair instal of Windows, to no avail. I can boot normally now, but anything Explorer related will make it die again...

I tried removing Office, the bar freezes halfway into 'preparing the necesary data' or whatever.

lol doublepost, but i have more info, and i need a bump

I have booted to safe mode after the repair install, and everything seems normal enough. This is an improvement! Sadly, I cannot repair or uninstall Office from within safe mode. I have tried both booting with the Office CD in and out to fix the install error, but there's no difference between them.

I'm gonna try to make another user account, to see if its linked to just that


EDIT: This is even weirder: windows is acting normally again

just randomly. meh