Caught in loop trying to upgrade to IE6 using Windows Update

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I also posted this Q on the MS Internet Explorer newsgroup and the MS Windows Update newsgroup (yes, I know, I'm being impatient). So should you read this post much later than I last posted here, perhaps its better to check whether its been answered there already, so as not to do double work.

PROBLEM:

In order to run the new anti-virusprogram, I need to have upgraded to IE 6 (I now still have IE 5.0). I went to Windows Update and downloaded the IE 6 Service Pack, but I seem to have gotten caught in a loop trying to install it, always getting the error message:

"Setup could not open the file: 'C:\WINDOWS\IE Setup Log.Txt'."

SPECIFICS / WHAT DID I DO?:

1. I used Windows Update to select and download IE 6, but when it tries to install it, it pops up with the above error message. I can press "Retry" as often as I want, nothing gives. When, alternatively, I press "Cancel", I get this message:

"Setup cannot create the log file: C\WINDOWS\IE Setup Log.Txt"

And when I then press OK (no other choice), it goes back to the install window, quickly finishes and notes:

"Setup was unable to install all the components. Please close all applications and try running Setup again."

2. when I do close all applications and restart the computer, Windows Update automatically opens up to finish the installation. It starts to unpack/install, but then again pops up with the same error message: "Setup could not open the file: 'C:\WINDOWS\IE Setup Log.Txt'."

Again, pressing "Retry" doesnt help and this time, if you press "Cancel", you get:

"Setup is not yet complete. If you quit now, the product will not be installed properly. Quit Setup?"

If I say "No", I go back to the error message. If I say "Yes", I again get "Setup cannot create the log file: C\WINDOWS\IE Setup Log.Txt", and then: "Setup was unable to install all the components. Please close all applications and try running Setup again."

But if I close all applications and restart the computer, I just go back to step 2. It's a loop.

How do I get out of this, and get IE 6 to install after all?

WHAT DID I ALREADY TRY?

1. If, at any moment of the above-described process I try to click the set-up file for IE 6 separately, I get the message:

"A previous installation has pending work requiring a reboot. You need to restart your computer to complete that installation before running Internet Explorer Setup. Setup will now close."

2. Following the advice in a related help-file on microsoft.com, I already tried renaming the wininit.ini file, by restarting in MS-Dos mode and running wininit.exe. Didnt help.

3. Following the advice in a related help-file on microsoft.com, I already tried, I already tried emptying the Temporary Internet Files folder and restarting the computer. Didnt help.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated ...

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This from the other group:

nimh wrote:

zee wrote:
If you are running WinME, try this:

Go to My Computer - Tools - Folder Options - View:
- Select "Show hidden files and folders", click Apply - OK

Create a folder named "Old uninstall".

Go to folder C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer/Uninstall Information.

Now Edit - Select All - Cut all files.

Open "Old uninstall" folder and paste the files.

You will now be able to install all the troublesome components.

If everything works as expected, you can delete the "Old Uninstall" folder and the files you moved.

Good luck,

Zee

Thank you for the quick response!

It didnt work, though ...

I am running Win98, but I went to Folder Options in the drop down menu and where it says, "Hidden files", I clicked to "Show all files". I then cut all the files from the C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer/Uninstall Information folder and pasted them into a newly made C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer/Old Uninstall Info folder.

I then restarted the computer, Windows Update opened automatically, and I had it start over - but quickly got the same error message again: "Setup could not open the file: 'C:\WINDOWS\IE Setup Log.Txt'."

Did I do anything wrong?

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Could you try downloading it again? You may have to select "installation history" but I'm not certain.

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Well, I can download the IE 6 setup file anew, but how will that help? After all, if I click on the IE setup file, it tells me,

"A previous installation has pending work requiring a reboot. You need to restart your computer to complete that installation before running Internet Explorer Setup. Setup will now close."

It looks like it doesnt want to do anything with the setup file as long as Windows Update is in this loop ...

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What about going to Add/Remove programs and removing IE. It should roll it back to a previous installation. (Admittedly, I'm really reaching here)

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Nimh, this sounds almost like a file permissions problem, but that's not possible since you're running Win98 which uses FAT32 partitions...hmmm...

Does the file 'C:\Windows\IE Setup Log.Txt' exist?
Can you open it?
Can you create new files in the 'C:\Windows\' folder?
Have you successfully installed other Windows updates recently?

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Wilso wrote:

Could you try downloading it again? You may have to select "installation history" but I'm not certain.

OK, I thought about what Wilso said and did the following:

1. Deleted the ie6setup.exe file I downloaded previously, in case it might have been damaged, and downloaded a new one from microsoft.com

2. Emptied the Program Files/Internet Explorer/Uninstall information folder like Zee had said to.

3. Deleted the Windows/Windows Update Setup Files folder - it had a text file in it saying it was safe to do so, anyway.

4. Restarted the computer.

Out of the loop! Hooray! Windows Update doesnt automatically start up, and when I click the newly downloaded ie6setup.exe, it starts at the very beginning (I accept this license etc) - and starts downloading and installing everything it needs anew.

Until ... at "69% Installed", the same old error message pops up: "Setup could not open the file: 'C:\WINDOWS\IE Setup Log.Txt'."

Back to square one, and into the loop again ...

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Monger wrote:

Does the file 'C:\Windows\IE Setup Log.Txt' exist?
Can you open it?

Hi Monger!

Yes, it exists.

Yes, I can open it. Its looong, opens in WordPad.

Monger wrote:

Can you create new files in the 'C:\Windows\' folder?

Yes. I just made a new file in C:\Windows called doowop.txt, that says "doowop". No problem.

Monger wrote:

Have you successfully installed other Windows updates recently?

I hadnt installed Windows updates for a long while, but last night I went to Windows Update and started. I started trying to install IE6, but because of the problems I was having with that, I then first installed the 4 or so Security Updates it listed as being needed still. It installed those without a problem. (In fact, I uninstalled one of them just now, through Add/Remove programs, and reinstalled it again through the Windows Update site, no problem.)

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Try renaming 'IE Setup Log.txt' as well as the file 'Active Setup Log.txt' then run the setup program again (don't run it from the Windows Update site though because that just adds one more problem cause to consider).

If the problem persists, open your 'IE Setup Log.txt' & paste any lines which include the words "failed" or "incomplete" into the thread here (long as there aren't too many, otherwise just paste the last few), & maybe we'll be able to see what's going on.

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By the way, if during the remainder of your troubleshooting you need to get around that message which said you've got to reboot before running IE setup because a previous program installation wasn't completed, try this (of course, first make sure to backup your registry!!)...

- Click Start -> Run, then type regedit.
- In Registry Editor, go to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager'.
- In the right pane, delete PendingFileRenameOperations.
- In the left pane, expand the Session Manager subkey. If a FileRenameOperations subkey is listed, click it, then delete all entries in the FileRenameOperations subkey.
- Quit registry editor, then restart IE setup.

Let me know if you have any trouble with this.

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Monger wrote:

Try renaming 'IE Setup Log.txt' as well as the file 'Active Setup Log.txt' then run the setup program again (don't run it from the Windows Update site though because that just adds one more problem cause to consider).

Yess! It seems to have worked.

This is what I did:

a) I renamed 'IE Setup Log.txt' into 'IE Setup Log.old',
b) rebooted the computer,
c) clicked cancel (or exit or whatever) on the Windows Update thing when it came up again,
d) deleted the Windows/Windows Update Setup Files folder because I wanted to make sure I would start without "luggage",
e) ran ie6setup.exe.

It didn't work - said that the download location was corrupted (I think) and I should empty my IE cache; so,

f) I did empty my cache (Tools -> Internet Options -> Temporary Internet files -> Delete files),
g) then tried ie6setup.exe again ...

and it worked. :-)

Perhaps if I hadn't done c) and/or d), I wouldnt have had to do f) ... or perhaps it wouldnt have worked if I hadnt done it, I dunno. But in any case IE 6 now seems to be up and running.

Oh, there's one more thing though.

When I restarted the computer in order to finish the setup, one error message did come up:

"An error occurred loading "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\ieinfo5.ocx". The file may not have been installed or it has been corrupted."

I dunno what that means. It hasnt caused me any trouble yet, but then I only just started IE6 up, so it might still ...

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No big deal, I think. Ieinfo5.ocx is used to let you see info about IE in the System Information tool. If you really want it there are probably sites online that offer it.

By the way, I've gotta say, you give the most helpful error reports I've seen. (Better than I give anyway. Smile

) Glad to hear you got it working, nimh.

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Monger wrote:

By the way, I've gotta say, you give the most helpful error reports I've seen.

My thoughts as well.

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Thanks ;-)

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One more fix that worked
Thank you to all who posted the great advice on how to fix this problem.

Just wanted to share with you how I resolved the same problem after unsuccessfully trying all the great advice posted here and a few other places. The PC acting up had WinME w/ IE 5.50 SP1.

I finally decided to uninstall Internet Explorer with IEradicator, and then re-installed IE 6 from CD. Upon re-boot, I encountered a long string of "could not upgrade %1 from %2" errors, followed by an error message that an "error or exception occurred while calling the function DllInstall in C:\Windows\System\inetcpl.cpl" -- but WinME did start. One more reboot and I was able to get the remaining Windows updates via the normal MS web site.

This also broke the Avast! anti-virus software installed on this machine. That fix came from the Avast! support forum, here.

Thanks again for all the above posts and discussion, and I hope this post helps someone in the future.

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Caught in loop trying to upgrade to IE6 using Windows Update

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