MiKTeX and proTeXt ⇒ Unable to uninstall MikTex in Vista

[alexepascual]

I installed MikTex in a Vista laptop a few days ago. I wanted to uninstall it in order to re-install it for all users on the machine. But when I try to uninstall from "Remove Programs" I get "Windows API error 5: Access is denied" and it is even hard to quit the wizard after this happens.
Does anybody know a work-around for this problem?

[gmedina]

This is another example of the UAC problem that Tomek mentioned in this other thread. Try to deactivate UAC (google: "deactivate UAC vista").

[alexepascual]

This is another example of the UAC problem that Tomek mentioned in this other thread. Try to deactivate UAC (google: "deactivate UAC vista").

Thanks a lot. I first thought about applying Tomek's suggestion to do the uninstall, but I didn't know how to run the uninstaller as an administator.
So for the uninstall deactivating UAC seems to be a very good solution. I am thinking now that it might also solve my other problems with the package manager.
I am planning to look into disabling UAC as soon as I submit this post. But... I am just curiuous.. If I didn't disable UAC, would I have had problems uninstalling any other program I have on my computer? (I don't remember ever trying to uninstall a program on this computer, so I never experienced this situation)

[gmedina]

No idea; I've never used Vista (and never will). However, I've installed and uninstalled MiKTeX on Vista systems for some colleagues and never encountered any problems with the UAC.

Edit: if you deactivate the UAC, do it on a temporary basis to avoid compromising the security of your system.

[alexepascual]

No idea; I've never used Vista (and never will). However, I've installed and uninstalled MiKTeX on Vista systems for some colleagues and never encountered any problems with the UAC.
Edit: if you deactivate the UAC, do it on a temporary basis to avoid compromising the security of your system.

This is good to know. So it means that this is not the expected behavior of the MikTeX uninstall.
After disabling UAC and before trying to uninstall I tried to see if I could use the package manager with UAC disabled. But the package manager window was empty. So I re-enabled UAC and tried the package manager again but its window was still empty. So I figured that something else must have gone wrong and decided to do the uninstall.
I disabled again UAC and tried to uninstall. But it gives me an error message saying that it can't find the file IniTexMF.exe. However, I went to the MiKText bin directory and the file is there. So, in summary I still can't uninstall.

[phi]

This sounds like a more nontrivial problem. Try posting a question to the MikTeX forum or the MikTeX mailing list.
BTW, you should never disable the UAC. Any application that requires this is flawed.

[T3.]

If you want to know what command is run to uninstall, you can get it from the registry. In regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MiKTeX 2.7 (it might be HKEY_CURRENT_USER, depending how you installed). The UninstallString contains the command you're after. Try to run it from an elevated command prompt and see if that works. There is a chance it will unless your installation got broken due to previous attempts.

Cheers,

Tomek

[alexepascual]

If you want to know what command is run to uninstall, you can get it from the registry. In regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\MiKTeX 2.7 (it might be HKEY_CURRENT_USER, depending how you installed). The UninstallString contains the command you're after. Try to run it from an elevated command prompt and see if that works. There is a chance it will unless your installation got broken due to previous attempts.

Cheers,

Tomek

The uninstall string key has data:
"C:\Program Files\MiKTex\miktex\bin\internal\copystart.exe" "C:\Program Files\MiKTex\miktex\bin\internal\uninstall.exe"

So there are two strings. I could just try to run "C:\Program Files\MiKTex\miktex\bin\internal\uninstall.exe" but I wonder why that other string (...copystart.exe) is there.
How do you get an elevated command prompt in Vista?

[alexepascual]

This sounds like a more nontrivial problem. Try posting a question to the MikTeX forum or the MikTeX mailing list.
BTW, you should never disable the UAC. Any application that requires this is flawed.

Thanks for the info. I posted to the MikTex forum as you suggested but no answers yet. I still have to try the mailing list.
I did find some interesting posts at that forum. One suggested (for a different problem) to go to the settings program. I tried to run that program to see what it gave me. But I get an error:

MiKTeX Problem Report
Message: Dvips paper size definitions could not be read.
Data:
Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\papersize.cpp
Line: 291
MiKTeX:2.8
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, 32-bit Service Pack 1 (build 6001)
SystemAdmin: yes
PowerUser: no
Root0: C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.8
Root1: C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Local\MiKTeX\2.8
Root2: C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.8
Root3: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.8
UserInstall: C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.8
UserConfig: C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.8
UserData: C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Local\MiKTeX\2.8
CommonInstall: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.8
CommonConfig: C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.8
CommonData: C:\ProgramData\MiKTeX\2.8

Then It opens the Settings dialog and I notice:
(1) The paper size combo box is empty.
(2) The Roots window does not show any paths.
(3) Clicking on the Formats tab gives error: No formats.ini exists.
(4) Clicking on the Languages tab gives error: The language definition file (languages.dat) could not be found.
(5) The Packages tab does not show any packages

It looks to me like the first time I tried to uninstall, the uninstall program did a partial uninstall. If that is the case, I think this would be another bug (besides the one that prevented the uninstall to complete).

[T3.]

To start elevated command prompt, right click on cmd.exe (or a shortcut to it) and choose "Run as ...". You should enter the uninstall command exactly as defined in the registry. I don't know what the copystart.exe does, but judging from its name it probably copies the uninstaller to a different place before launching it (most likely to avoid file locking problem).

Based on the additional info you posted, MiKTeX is installed in "C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.8\", but the uninstall string seems to be missing the " 2.8" part of the name. Why that would be the case, I have no idea, but that could be a problem as well.

I'm not that familiar with MiKTeX any more, I use TeX Live now. You might give it a go if you like. There is some work done to improve things on Vista in the upcoming release, so stay tuned (or try pretest version and help with testing).

Cheers,

Tomek