VTECS Support Bulletin 20060816

RE: Uninstalling or Reinstalling VTECS products on Windows XP

Overview: NEVER UNINSTALL MSDE ON WINDOWS XP.

At times, users may wish to uninstall or reinstall a VTECS product (Connect or 
DIRECT).  When removing VTECS products there are two entries in Windows’ “Add /
Remove Programs” list of the Control Panel.  Each VTECS product installs the 
client software and the database server software.  The database software is 
listed in the “Add/Remove Programs” Control Panel as “Microsoft SQL Server 
Desktop Engine”. NEVER under ANY circumstances uninstall the Microsoft SQL 
Server Desktop Engine on a PC running any version of Windows XP (Home or 
Professional, any service pack level).


VTECS licenses the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) directly from 
Microsoft, installation and removal of this product is controlled by Microsoft.
There is a bug in Microsoft’s uninstall script for the MSDE software. This bug
removes part of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) package from 
Windows. MDAC is a separate software component from MSDE, however they work 
together to allow software in Windows to access database objects.  MDAC used to 
be shipped separately from Windows. Windows XP has MDAC built into itself by 
default, and since Windows thinks MDAC is built-in, there is no way to patch it 
separately once it gets messed up.

Microsoft recommends installing/reinstalling Service Pack 2 on Windows XP as an
alternative to fixing this issue. In our support staff’s experience this issue 
must be fixed manually by patching MDAC.

How to Manually Repair MDAC 2.81 under Windows XP with SP2

1. Open the folder C:\Windows\inf and locate the file mdac.inf.

Note: Your Windows folder could be named differently, e.g. C:\WinXP

2. Right-click the file mdac.inf and click Install.

3.  When prompted for a location, point to C:\Windows\servicepackfiles\i386

4. When prompted for the file handler.reg, either point to 
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\msadc,
or put the Windows XP CD in your CD-ROM drive. 

More Info on this issue can be found at:
http://www.macropool.com/en/download/mdac_xp_sp2.html

Or, you can search Google with the following search terms: 
uninstall msde winxp

NOTE:  Information at these links is not owned or controlled by VTECS.
VTECS is not responsible for incorrect information.