The solution ended up that there were remnants of three .NET programs still resident on the computer. By using a registry cleaner (registry mechanic) I was able to fix the "tech support" changes to the registry, then use a uninstall program (not the Microsoft ones which didn't work, but Smarty Uninstall) to do a complete removal of the .NET software. This allowed me to finally reinstall .NET which fixed almost everything. I still had to reinstall a few programs, but the installations actually worked where before it did not.
Conclusions - bet wary of tech support J If I had thought to use non Microsoft registry fix and uninstaller before hand, I probably could have avoid days of frustration and hours of work, yet on all the message boards I read of people with the same .NET errors, this never came up. From: Computer Guys Announcements and Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of COMPUTERGUYS-L automatic digest system Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 8:31 PM To: [email protected] Subject: COMPUTERGUYS-L Digest - 1 Dec 2007 - Special issue (#2007-851) Why did you go back to the previous version? Was v. 2008 not working or you just didn't like it? Have you tried reinstalling v. 2008? > -----Original Message----- > > I have a serious problem with my computer and am desperately trying to > prevent a complete wipe of my computer. I recently installed ACT! > 2008 over the 2006 version and everything seemed fine. I then > uninstalled > ACT!2008 to return to the earlier version. When I tried to reinstall > ACT!2006 it crashed, repeatedly. I called SAGE and the "techsupport" > screwed around on my computer for a while and then told me they could > do no more and I needed to call Microsoft to fix it. Because of the > "techsupport" I lost access to ALL Office programs and Quickbooks. I > did a restore point to earlier in the day and was able to recover > Office and Quickbooks, but still no ACT!2006 or ACT!2008. ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
