Cannot upgrade or reinstall

[bt]

I am running Virtualbox on Windows 10. I am trying to upgrade to the current version. The upgrade fails, I think when it is trying to remove the previous version. A clean uninstall also fails. The Windows logs talk about a "Failed to create restore point" event after which the uninstall aborts and rolls back.

I don't care if a restore point is created or not. I just want the upgrade to complete, or failing that, to be able to uninstall.

How can I bypass this? I tried to use CCleaner to uninstall, but it just ran the regular uninstall process, which failed again.

Thanks.

[socratis]

The Windows logs talk about a "Failed to create restore point" event after which the uninstall aborts and rolls back.

Then you're looking in the wrong place. You should be looking at a Windows forum. Preferably a "Windows installer/uninstaller" forum...

[bt]

Excuse me? Am I not posting in the VirtualBox on Windows Hosts forum?

[socratis]

Yes you are. But this is NOT a VirtualBox problem, this is a Windows installer problem. Your installer's database is botched. There's absolutely nothing that VirtualBox can do about it, or anything that VirtualBox had to do with it. This is purely and clearly a bad/corrupt Windows installer database error.

[bt]

I am running the virtualbox uninstallation program. It is failing to uninstall. I see no reason why it has to create a restore point in order to uninstall itself, or why it refuses to continue if the restore point is not created. How is that a problem with anything other than virtualbox?

[BillG]

Socratis has spelled out exactly why it cannot be a VirtualBox question. You are trying to install or reinstall a program in Windows. That process uses the Windows installer program. It makes no difference at all what that program is called - it remains a Windows problem.

What part of this is not clear? If you google windows installer error you will see that it is not an unusual problem.

[bt]

There is no Windows problem. I have system protection turned off on my system because I want it that way, The virtualbox uninstaller fails to run in this environment. So virtualbox cannot be upgraded, or uninstalled. Poor design on virtualbox's part. What part of that do you not understand.

[socratis]

What part of that do you not understand.

I'll tell you what *I* don't understand; that someone being told over and over and over again that what they think/believe/embrace is wrong. And the ultimate failure in human communication.

I think we've spent a lot of time on this, it's going nowhere. Please try to fix your Windows installer. We're done here.