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I've got a computer (my Mother's personal machine) running Vista that's been messed with by her local IT 'support' (she's a Realtor and her company requires certain configurations for domain logins).

In the process of doing whatever this guy did, an install has gotten 'stuck'. When she starts up and logs in to her account, it proceeds to try to install something (it's called 'Status' and damned if I know what it really is). Unfortunately, it's attempting to access a temp directory that isn't there anymore (I checked).

Cancelling out of the install will (eventually, after about 30 clicks) get the dialogs to go away, but they pop back up on next login.

I have no idea what this software is, or is for, and I don't care. How do I stop it from trying to install? Her IT people aren't on-site all the time, so it's not likely that they will be useful any day soon, and I'd like to clean this up.

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1 Answer

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Check the startup routine with Autoruns (requires to 'run as administrator' in Vista).

Don't delete anything, only clear the box to disable an item.

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I had a look around with autoruns and didn't see anything relevant. Can you point me to a specific section to look at? As near as I can see this is a legit .msi trying to finish it's install, but I don't know where Windows keeps such things. – Michael Kohne Jan 21 '10 at 6:44
@Michael Kohne - any info on the product name or the maker? you can make a "scrollable" screen shot of autoruns with Faststone Capture (free and portable) and link it to your post: portablefreeware.com/?id=775 – Molly7244 Jan 21 '10 at 15:53
@Molly - it's called 'Status' and I've got no other clues. I'm looking for a general solution to the problem of getting rid of a half-done Windows install. I don't think there's much special here, other than the fact that the install got screwed up by the guy doing it. If they don't clean it up, I might get a screen shot tonight. – Michael Kohne Jan 21 '10 at 17:51
Well, it's resolved. Apparently the IT guys somehow decided that it was the HP drivers that were at fault and so Mom threw those disks in and it's happy now. I'm going to accept this answer because autoruns is DEFINITELY the right tool to start with. – Michael Kohne Jan 22 '10 at 15:04

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