CANNOT UNINSTALL FS2004!?!?!?!?!?!

[brantmacga]

I'm trying to uninstall and reinstall FS2004. I clicked "Change/Remove" in add/remove programs and a message popped up saying "This will remove GMAX Bacalod Scenery; click OK to continue." I clicked okay. Now, when I click it to uninstall FS2004 it says "An error has occured; would you like to remove Microsoft Flight Simulator for your programs list?"   WHAT THE CRAP!?!?!? Anyone have a clue?

[NicksFXHouse]

Check to see if the folder

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9

is still on your system and if it is, look inside the folder "Flight Simulator 9"  and see if there is a list of about 23 folders. If it is empty or nearly empty, FS9 did uninstall. Just delete the "Flight Simulator 9" folder and go ahead and reinstall FS9.

I have seen similar uninstall errors in the past caused by 3rd party add-on's.

[Nav]

I suggest that you uninstall using Disk One, not 'Add/Remove Programs'. And if you have the update and the No-CD patch, uninstall those first (again, using the uninstall commands in the programs, not Windows 'Add/Remove').

[brantmacga]

No, flightsim DID NOT uninstall. Everything is still on my system and i'm still getting the error even after reboot. thanks for the suggestion though.

[brantmacga]

I suggest that you uninstall using Disk One, not 'Add/Remove Programs'. And if you have the update and the No-CD patch, uninstall those first (again, using the uninstall commands in the programs, not Windows 'Add/Remove').

That was a capital idea Nav!! Problem solved. Thanks so much!

[Hussein Patwa]

Just as a post script for users who may have this problem in the future, sometimes uninstalls won't work if third part utilities have been installed after the original install was done - in this case, aircraft or other utilities/add-ons, as the 'lock' the files and hence they cannot be read for the uninstall to succeed.  In this case, uninstall any third party utils you may have - keeping their installs is not going to help you at all, they'd have to be re-installed anyway when you re-installed FS at a later date.  You can safely keep all your aircraft folders, as well as a copy of your gauges folder (many aircraft ask you to put their guages in there, and if you didn't keep a copy the next time you installed FS your guages wouldn't work). That way, next time you come along, if you've had to format your drive or whatever, you cna just copy your aircraft back into FS, copy your guages back in, and re-install your utils - time saved with the aircraft installs and the complex config file editing, etc.

Hope that helps someone.

Hussein.

[TheBod1357]

HELP! The same problem occured with mine, except it says that it cannot find my uninstall folder!

[garymbuska]

Before doing the below make a restore point first

One quick way you can reinstall fs without having unistalled it first is to rename the orignal FS folder to what ever you want then delete the fs2004.exe file you find in the main root of that folder than you can reinstall fs and drag back the other folders you want from the renamed folder like the gauges and the addonscenery folder.
I have to caution you on doing this you have to make sure all of your short cuts point to the right place once you have every thing moved from the old fsfolder you can delete it .
This method will work but not sugested to inexperienced person as it can really open up a can of worms if not done right. Which is why you make the restore point first if things really go astray just restore to the point you set and everything will be as before you did anything