Fri 07/17/2009 3:06 PM

mind boggling problem with adobe air

For the last two days I have been trying to solve a software problem on my PC at work that has me tearing my hair out. It's just weird, and I'm running out of ideas to fix it.

It all started when I tried to install an application that runs on the Adobe AIR runtime. I couldn't get the application to install, as the AIR application installer would crash every time I tried. I decided to try uninstalling and reinstalling AIR itself, but I couldn't do that either, as AIR's own installer would crash on all attempts both to uninstall and to reinstall on top of the existing installation.

I next attempted to uninstall AIR in safe mode. While it doesn't crash in safe mode, the uninstall still fails, producing the log below. Maybe an Adobe guru can interpret this, but to me it's useless.

UI SWF load is complete
starting uninstall
Beginning install
Uninstalling product w/ GUID {A2BCA9F1-566C-4805-97D1-7FDC93386723}
Error occurred; beginning rollback: [ErrorEvent type="error" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text="1601" errorID=0]
Rollback due to error complete
error during install: [ErrorEvent type="error" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text="1601" errorID=0]
runtime install entering error state: [ErrorEvent type="error" bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text="1601" errorID=0]
begin quitting

It occurred to me to try running an AIR application on the other Windows (XP) administrator account on the machine. Lo and behold, it worked! I installed the application I had originally wanted to install, and it installed and ran just fine. Switching back to my account and trying to run the app just produced more crashing - all occurring in AdobeAIR.dll just as the installer crashes did. I tried reinstalling AIR, uninstalling and reinstalling again, from the other account where such tasks actually complete successfully, but it still will not function on my own account at all.

Thinking maybe there was a conflict with something I was running on my account, I used Process Explorer to compare the processes running on each account. They are identical. I again confirmed, with the same processes running on both accounts, that AIR functions on one but not the other.

I know I could probably solve this whole problem by moving to a new administrator account. But that would be a huge pain in the rear, since in this small office my computer also functions as a server for the printer/scanner, QuickBooks, our external backup drive, and a ton of shared files. And it wouldn't be so much a solution as a band-aid, really. I want to know what is wrong, and fix it! If what is wrong is that my account is hopelessly corrupted, and a new account is the only solution, then that's fine - it happens. But I want to be sure that is the problem before taking such a drastic measure.

Is there anyone out there in Bloggyland that can help me?

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4 comments/trackbacks

comment: from John B.

Did you ever try any force-uninstalling utilities to remove AIR and try again?

Fri 07/17/2009 3:14 PM

comment: from HelloKit

@John: Oh, crap. I knew I was forgetting something. Yes, I did, as well as uninstalling from the other account as I mentioned (which did successfully uninstall).

Fri 07/17/2009 3:19 PM

comment: from Neil T.

Have a look at these - don't know if they're much help but it may well be a general issue with AIR:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/830202/adobe-air-non-administrator-application-installation-upgrade-on-windows

http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/08/06/what-are-your-biggest-issues-with-adobe-air/

Mon 07/20/2009 8:54 AM

trackback: solving the adobe air mystery from confoozled.com

I got a few suggestions over the weekend on how to fix my Adobe AIR problem, but nothing worked. So, I took the plunge and created a new administrator account for myself and began the long process of moving all of my settings, files, etc. from the old ...
read the whole article

Wed 07/22/2009 4:46 PM