Uninstalling applications may render your Vista NOT GENUINE

I had a bad experience yesterday. I uninstalled SimCity Societies (a
legitimate copy of the game) from my Vista Ultimate (also a legitimate
version, for which I was dumb enough to pay full price instead of paying the
upgrade). The uninstall went well without problems. Then I decided to
reboot.

When I try to log on, I received a dark blue screen saying that my Vista was
not genuine anymore and could not continue. The system went back to the
login screen. I tried rebooting, relogging, same error. Web tech support
was useless because I do not have another computer to contact them and
telephone support was ... well let's just say politely that they do not offer
any usefull help (unless I wanted to reformat and reinstall everything).

I was finally able to put Vista back into a working state. In case it
happens to you, here is what I did to correct this:

During boot, I immediately pressed F8 to bring the startup menu. I selected
"Boot with the last known working configuration". Vista booted and I was
able to log in. The system still display a message in the bottom right
corner of the screen saying that Vista is not genuine, but at least, it does
not send me back to the logon screen. I performed a Windows Update. A lot
of updates were then detected (even if I already installed them weeks ago).
I proceed with the installation and rebooted the computer. Vista came back
in its normal state and genuine again.

Being a little mentally disturbed (you have to be to pay full price for
Vista Ultimate), I decided to reinstall the game and uninstall it again.
This time, no problem occured.

I ran virus and spyware check (my computer was never infected by any virus
but you never know): nothing. I ran defragmentation application: no big
fragmentation there. No suspicious driver or application installed (all
legitimate... I told you I was a little mentally disturbed).

My only conclusion, since all installation programs must run with
"Administrator" privileges, something when wrong during uninstallation and
corrupted Windows Vista. I don't think the game itself was responsable but
more Installshield (which is not a good installer program compare to product
like NSIS ).

So keep in mind that Vista may break when uninstalling program and that the
"boot with last known working configuration" may be your best friend in these
cases.

I hope my bad experience may help somebody someday.

If it does that, just try reactivating by phone and simply explain the
situation if asked.
"eboulanger" <> wrote in message
news:A8DFF2FD-7242-464A-A253-...
>I had a bad experience yesterday. I uninstalled SimCity Societies (a
> legitimate copy of the game) from my Vista Ultimate (also a legitimate
> version, for which I was dumb enough to pay full price instead of paying
> the
> upgrade). The uninstall went well without problems. Then I decided to
> reboot.
>
> When I try to log on, I received a dark blue screen saying that my Vista
> was
> not genuine anymore and could not continue. The system went back to the
> login screen. I tried rebooting, relogging, same error. Web tech support
> was useless because I do not have another computer to contact them and
> telephone support was ... well let's just say politely that they do not
> offer
> any usefull help (unless I wanted to reformat and reinstall everything).
>
> I was finally able to put Vista back into a working state. In case it
> happens to you, here is what I did to correct this:
>
> During boot, I immediately pressed F8 to bring the startup menu. I
> selected
> "Boot with the last known working configuration". Vista booted and I was
> able to log in. The system still display a message in the bottom right
> corner of the screen saying that Vista is not genuine, but at least, it
> does
> not send me back to the logon screen. I performed a Windows Update. A
> lot
> of updates were then detected (even if I already installed them weeks
> ago).
> I proceed with the installation and rebooted the computer. Vista came
> back
> in its normal state and genuine again.
>
> Being a little mentally disturbed (you have to be to pay full price for
> Vista Ultimate), I decided to reinstall the game and uninstall it again.
> This time, no problem occured.
>
> I ran virus and spyware check (my computer was never infected by any virus
> but you never know): nothing. I ran defragmentation application: no big
> fragmentation there. No suspicious driver or application installed (all
> legitimate... I told you I was a little mentally disturbed).
>
> My only conclusion, since all installation programs must run with
> "Administrator" privileges, something when wrong during uninstallation and
> corrupted Windows Vista. I don't think the game itself was responsable
> but
> more Installshield (which is not a good installer program compare to
> product
> like NSIS ).
>
> So keep in mind that Vista may break when uninstalling program and that
> the
> "boot with last known working configuration" may be your best friend in
> these
> cases.
>
> I hope my bad experience may help somebody someday.
>
>
>

Thing is, I did that. (I also just tried the rebooting to last known good
configuation). After activating over the phone, though, I'm still having the
issue. I don't recall uninstalling anything either before it happened. Is
there a possibility (or does anyone know) of a virus that could be doing
this? I know there's always the possibility... but I guess I'm just looking
for confirmation.