Are you running the installer as administrator? That's the most likely cause of the error.

But there's no need to reinstall BOINC due to the disk space error. We can probably solve that for you.

What error do you get? Copy the messages from the messages tab, and we should be able to set you straight.

I tried the Microsoft Installer remover but can't get rid of the BOINC client (it just keeps popping back up) and I can't re-install it either. Still getting the following error when I try to re-install:

Can't find:
C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations\{3FDE1B10-6703-462A-B0C0-49B4F988B521}\

I don't think that I can run the un-installer as anything else other than the Administrator as I am the only account set up to use my computer and by default, I believe, the administrator. What am I missing here?

Runas Administrator is different from being a user with administrative permissions. Here's a link how I got the actual admin to become visible:

http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2007/10/19...ta-administrator-account/

I occasionally hotswap into the admin for housekeeping (which by default has no password, so make sure to set a strong one).

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What does the programs and preferences control panel say what version you should have been on or is all reference gone from there?

I think if you knew the previous version that is missing and reinstall that one it will bring up a repair / remove option (tried and tested by several members as reported on these boards).

The error message you have now is because an BOINC.msi of a previous install missing in C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations\{3FDE1B10-6703-462A-B0C0-49B4F988B521}\ on your disk. That one could be recovered by tracing back the version and unpacking that installer and putting the msi back.

From toying with Vista i know there is a moment where it offers to remove old install kits. Learning from past, I've categorically said No since.

Assuming you had the official WCG skinned version on Jan.10'08 it could have been http://boincdl.ssl.berkeley.edu/dl/wcg_boinc_5.10.30_windows_intelx86.exe
The one before that was http://boincdl.ssl.berkeley.edu/dl/wcg_boinc_5.8.15_windows_intelx86.exe

If you got that, run it until the first install screen appears with the "Next" button. Then navigate in file explorer to C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations\......\ and see if a new BOINC.msi was placed there.

I dont know if the directory key is always the same, but when I started it up it did put the MSI in the C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations\{3xxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}\ location that was created back when.

If you did not do any configuration work since your BOINC un/install attempts, you could try the Vista System Restore Point software to see if you can get a working copy back. On my menu the recovery program got the wonderful name of "Ripristino configurazione di sistema"



Let us know.