Fall has finally arrived. This morning I was outside and I heard the noise of the leaves fluttering down from the trees. It was very peaceful. Jogging in 35 degree weather was less peaceful.
This week I also spent a lot of time dealing with a system-wide computer failure brought on by a failed software installation. I suppose I always run this risk every time I write a software review, but this one was shrink-wrapped production stuff, so I wasn’t worried. Famous last words…
The software did not finish its installation and locked up my system somewhere in the middle of doing what it was supposed to do. The program wouldn’t run, so I decided to reinstall. But this software program is one that won’t let you reinstall if it finds an existing installation. You have to uninstall it first. That’s where the trouble began.
I dutifully uninstalled the software. But the uninstall didn’t work. The install wizard kept insisting that the software was there and it must uninstall it, but it didn’t actually uninstall anything. I deleted the software files and folders, but the installer program continued to insist on doing an uninstall. Which doesn’t work. So, I was stuck in some infinite loop of wizard stupidity.
After dealing with a number of unhelpful "Dear Customer" e-mails from tech support, I ended up talking to my press contact (being a writer does have a few perks). He valiantly attempted to help me by finding evil files and entries in the registry. These changes trashed my system so that I had to reinstall Windows to restore my CD-ROM drives. He also sent me out a new copy of the software.
But that wasn’t all. After reinstalling Windows, I lost network support and access to my printers. (Isn’t this neat?!) After everything was all put back together and I’d deleted a few more offending files, I tried installing the software using the brand new disk the FedEx man brought me.
But the brain-dead installation wizard tried to uninstall the non-existent software again. I threw the ugly yellow box at the wall and fired off an e-mail to the magazine to ask to review something (anything!) else.
Mr. FedEx man should be bringing me another software review candidate soon. But for now, I think I’m going to go out and pick the last of my tomatoes.