Skip to main content

Sometimes, I do agree with Mac users. Microsoft sucks.

I give up on trying to install the Windows Live Writer. It just refuses to install. After giving a variety of different errors and exhibiting a variety of different installation behaviours, it still refuses to install. And I now lost the previous version I had, because the installer uninstalled it!

I was updating all Windows Live software and trying out the Photo Gallery (which I later uninstalled). Windows Live Messenger updated successfully and is now reported to be up-to-date. But the Writer simply refuses to install. It gives errors like:
  • Installation failed due to unknown reason
  • Connectivity problems: Can't connect to Internet (even downloading the 135 MB 'Try again' installer did not work!)
  • Installation failed due to installation conflict: More than one instance of Windows Live installer is running (which is false, because I tried just after I restarted my computer. I even tried 'End Process' on running instances of Windows installer, which led to...
  • Can't access Windows installer service. (this error was caused by me, as explained before).
And it exhibits behaviours like:
  • Using the old Writer.msi in the cache folder of Windows Live installer (if you know what I mean). I solved this by deleting the cache completely which, by the way, freed up almost 400 MB of my hard disk space!
  • Downloading the Writer installation file over and over again (with each 'Try again').
  • Installation briefly starting and ending with error.
  • Installation going all the way to 94% then ending with error.
  • Installation going all the way to 96% then pausing, then ending with error.
I had been battling with this for the past 2-3 days. I uninstalled Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP2, used Windows Install Clean Up Utility, ended up unable to install 3.5 SP2, solved that by using the .NET fx Cleanup Tool (more about this here), restarted several times, checked for Windows Updates, solved the problem of Help and Support looking ugly (more about this here) and lots of other stuff I can't remember. Nothing helped.

I give up. Microsoft sucks. They always like to bring out new experimental stuff and throw it to their users, making their lives miserable. Why couldn't they stick with the good old tried and tested "run setup.exe, install software, run software" routine. Why did they have to come up with this headache-laden "new and improved" Windows Installer technology?

Anyway I tried to find some other alternative to Writer, but nothing comes close to the beauty and capabilities of Writer. Not even the w.bloggar (which had its last update in December 2007!) I miss Live Writer!

Back to the good ole Blogger New Post page.

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated, and are usually posted within 24 hours if approved. You must have a minimum of OpenID to post comments.

Popular posts from this blog

Can't exit Toddler Lock on Android phone

Toddler Lock will lock your Android phone completely so you can give it to a baby or toddler to play with. The only danger from the kid is that it may throw your phone and break it. But other than that, the kid will not be able to damage the phone by unlocking it and messing with what's inside. Here's the problem. The security of Toddler Lock is so tight that it would seem the only way to exit out of the app is to tap four corners of screen in a clockwise direction. (Note that you have to tap the four corners one after the other. Tap any corner, remove your finger, tag next corner in CW direction, remove your finger, and so on. Some people seem to think you need to hold all corners simultaneously which is wrong.) You may think a restart may also unlock it but even pulling out the battery for minutes (or perhaps hours) will not help. You will be stuck in Toddler Lock no matter what. This is fine until my screen started having problems. Two of the four corners I had to touch...
Post a Comment
Read more

Make Samsung DVD-C350 region-free

Update 2: An anonymous commentator has shown me a way to make Region 1 players (such as DVD-H1080R) region-free by first converting it to Region 3, then applying my region-free hack below. For details, click here or look for a comment by an Anonymous user dated 18 April 2011. Update: The instructions in the original post below did not make the DVD player region-free. Instead it only locked it to region 1. Many thanks to Anonymous who posted the first comment on this post, I now have alternate instructions. Note: If you have edited the numbers menu (see original post) , I suggest you return it to the original settings you had backed up. A modified numbers menu may prevent the instructions below from working properly.
62 comments
Read more

Group, Ungroup and Regroup disabled in Word

I was editing a Microsoft Word document which had a collection of shapes and text boxes grouped together. I wanted to modify some of the shapes, and therefore I had to ungroup them. But when I right-click the group and open the Group menu, all three options namely Group, Ungroup and Regroup are completely disabled or grayed out. I couldn’t figure out what’s wrong. This group of objects is perfectly ungroupable, and I can even select objects within the group. However, Microsoft Word 2007 is not letting me ungroup it. I searched the Internet for a solution, but did not find anything very useful. The closest I came across is this statement: “The type of Text Wrapping doesn't make any difference as long as it isn't In Line with Text.” ( Link here ) Anyway, I changed the text wrapping of the group of objects from ‘In line with Text’ to ‘Tight’ and viola! I could now ungroup it and edit it. The document got a bit messed up when I did so, but after I ungrouped, edited and regro...
10 comments
Read more