I provide basic support for an amateur-written program ("Active Display") since the author passed away suddenly last year. Normally I get by, so long as the user's PC is healthy. If installed following the instructions, it just works.
A user initially tried to install the 32 bit version of the program on a 64 bit Windows 8.1 computer, then installed the 64 bit version over it. This seemed to work but now he says "My computer recently applied some automatic upgrades and [Active Display] is not working. The message I receive is as follows... Underhanded [!] Exception has occurred in your application. - The type initializer for Active Display.Module1 threw an exception."
Three attempts to uninstall/reinstall made no difference. Using TeamViewer I uninstalled again and noted that Control Panel did not show Active Display as an installed program. I downloaded a fresh copy of the installer, unzipped it and clicked on the "setup.exe" file which normally starts the process. This produced a message, the main bit of which is:
"ERROR DETAILS
Following errors were detected during this operation.
* [21/08/2015 21:51:26] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (DeploymentUriDifferent)
- You cannot start application Active Display 1.64.5.1 from this location because it is already installed from a different location.
- Source: System.Deployment
- Stack trace:
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.CheckDeploymentProviderValidity(ActivationDescription actDesc, SubscriptionState subState)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)
--- Inner Exception ---
System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentException (DeploymentUriDifferent)
- You cannot start application Active Display 1.64.5.1 from location file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/ActiveDisplay_1.64.5.1%20unzipped/ActiveDisplay.application it is already installed from location file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/ActiveDisplay_1.64.5.1/ActiveDisplay.application. You can start it from location file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/ActiveDisplay_1.64.5.1/ActiveDisplay.application or you can uninstall it and reinstall it from location file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/ActiveDisplay_1.64.5.1%20unzipped/ActiveDisplay.application. If you reinstall the application, be aware that you might lose any customizations that you made to the application.
- Source:
- Stack trace:"
This makes little sense to me, especially "You can start it from location file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/ActiveDisplay_1.64.5.1/ActiveDisplay.application" since "C:/Users/User/Downloads/ActiveDisplay_1.64.5.1/" is a zip folder. The contents of that folder have to be unzipped to a separate folder, in this case the folder is "C:/Users/User/Downloads/ActiveDisplay_1.64.5.1%20unzipped/"
A Google search found various bits of advice for the error "cannot start application xxx from this location because it is already installed from a different location" the consensus being to uninstall the application and start again. OK, but Control Panel doesn't reveal any trace of it to uninstall. I know that the Windows Registry can get muddled and that even Control Panel can leave unwanted bits and pieces behind. I searched the user's PC for "Active Display" and came up with various items pre-dating my own installation attempt.
There are five like this "AppHang_ActiveDisplay.ex_ plus long number" in AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive.
"ActiveDisplay.cdf-ms" in AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\W7XC etc (whole title does not show) and in the same folder "ActiveDisplay.manifest", "ActiveDisplay.exe.manifest", "ActiveDisplay" (labelled as an application), "ActiveDisplay.exe.config" (two of those), and an ActiveDisplay.exe labelled as a text document in AppData\Local\Microsoft\CLR_v2.0\U...", followed by three items relating to the failed 32 bit installation, the original download zip in AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\58A2D6OK, and two shortcuts, one zipped, in \Roaming. Obviously there are also entries relating to my own installation attempt.
Am I correct in thinking that all these items need to be deleted, but even if I do this, something in the Registry might still insist that Active Display is installed ?
I don't mind tinkering with my own PC, but experimenting on someone else's in the name of "support" is a different matter.
I found a helpful-looking post here How can I remove all traces of a ClickOnce application from a customer's computer? but it requires a file from Visual Studio, which I don't have. I'm not the programmer (I'm a Delphi dabbler, myself).
I would much appreciate some straightforward guidance please. I am wary of using any utilities that promise to tidy up unwanted bits of program or dead registry items, as some experts say they don't really work and can do more harm than good - I cannot put something like that on someone else's machine. But if there is one that can be honestly recommended, please say.
Many thanks
Michael Hooker
