May I post my Adobe Support Advisor no. here?

Phillip,
You can post it in the Adobe.com Creative Suite forum (allows file uploads), or find my account in there and get my email.

Win:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/cre...
Mac:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/cre...

Philipp,
The installer logs you sent had multiple instances of this type of error:

DEBUG: Error 2203: Database: C:\Windows\Installer\b2f200.ipi. Cannot open database file. System error -2147287035
Internal Error 2203. C:\Windows\Installer\b2f200.ipi, -2147287035
Action ended 23:28:06: InstallInitialize. Return value 3.

With one case of an additional type of error:

Error 1310.Error writing to file: C:\Config.Msi\47ca7.rbf. Verify that you have access to that directory.
Action ended 23:55:35: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

The “System error –2147287035” means Access Denied. Both of these suggest that there is some parts of your drive that the System account, acting on behalf of the MSI (Microsoft Installer) is hitting a permissions restriction on.

See these MS tech docs for some additional background:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/32485...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888310

Although the later of those tech docs has a hotfix, the error number is different, and I believe you’re more likely to solve things by fixing permissions.

Try the following Solution 1. If that doesn’t solve the problem, then additionally perform Solution 2:

Solution 1: Grant the SYSTEM account Full Control permissions.
Edit the directory permissions to grant the SYSTEM account Full Control permissions to the folder referenced in the log (e.g. C:\Windows\Installer\c5ab.msi). This is usually the directory that contains the installation point.

1. Right-click the folder and choose Properties.
2. Under the Security tab, choose SYSTEM and select Allow Full Control.
3. Click Apply and then OK.

Solution 2: Reinstall Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1 or 4.x.
You can download the appropriate versionfor your Windows version from the Microsoft Download Center at www.microsoft.com/downloads/.

Let me know if this helps. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Matthew

Erm, Matthew, sorry for having to ask "dumb questions", but

1). Is there an easy / "one-click-changes-them-all" way somewhere in the (Windows) system (control panel or so...) or do I actually have to edit all those files manually?

2). Could you cite for me the files I have to change or are they that easy to find (in which of the both files mailed to you?) that I can find them myself? ;-)

3). Solution 1 - "right click the folder" = '...\Installer' folder, correct?

Philipp,
You should only have to repeat the process for two folders
C:\Windows\Installer\
C:\Config.Msi\
The second of this is a hidden folder, so you'll need to use the Folder View control panel to enable display of hidden folders.

Here's an update to the steps for solution 1 to ensure the change is made to children of the folder as well:

1. Right-click the folder and choose Properties.
2. Under the Security tab, click Advanced button.
3. On the Permissions tabl, Check the "Replace permissions entries...." option
4. Select the System item in the Permission entries list
5. Click the Edit button
6. Click to enable Full Control in the Allow column.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK again
9. At the Security prompt, click Yes.
10. Click OK to close the folder's properties window.

Good luck!
Matt

Hi Matthew,

thanks for the try, but we've got no luck. First all the permissions already seem to be set correctly. I also checked it, of course I use an Administrator account!
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/perm...
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/perm...
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/win7...

Secondly, the update with Microsoft Windows Installer doesn't work, it might be the problem that it is Windows 7 or it might be the "x64" or it might be both?!
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/Appl...

While trying to find sth. about the second issue I found:
http://chris123nt.com/2009/01/20/micr...
Would you think this could help? Yet I don't use a Beta or RC anymore, so (I hope) this shouldn't be a problem anymore...

Philipp,
If you have CEIP enabled, the the Win 7 beta solution might be worth testing. I think you're reaching the point where you'd be best off working with someone in real time. You can contact Adobe Tech Support for free support of installation issues:
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/

Good luck!

Hi Matthew,

ok I finally got through and the only thing I could get out of the support guy was that he said, the Adobe product line won't work (yet) with Windows 7, except when you maybe have good luck! That's a pity, is that really true?

Ok, just a quick update: I called the German tech support and they provided me with the important Tech Note issue help file, which we found fitted the case:
Installer freezes while Checking System Profile at 80-90% with the Adobe Creative Suite 4 or Point Products (because that was actually the problem as you can see here.)
Other important notes in this context are:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404913...
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/403/kb403963...

I tried all the solutions from "1" plus "3 - 9" and will call the support again ("10"). So I didn't try a new user profile ("2") yet, although I doubt it'll help as the problem was the same on several PCs. Still I didn't find an explanation for myself why it happened in the first place, so I'll give it a try!

On my Windows Vista x32 Laptop the CS4 seems to work now.
The main problem root seemed to be two things:

1). The left-over data in the folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe(\Installer), so the Solution "7" was the only one that produced relieve.

2). The activated virus scanner protection (of avast! Home v.4), I had to deactivate it at the whole installation and update process.
So that is important for everyone.

After deleting all the files mentioned above (except for the ones in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX") I was able to install everything without major problems, except: Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional.
This seems to be connected to the above files which I could not delete out of access permission problems as you've mentioned, the screenshots show it:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/acro...
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/acro...
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/acro...
Result (?): http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/16751/acro...

Yet luckily it seems after the activation / opening of Photoshop and the download and installation of all updates, it seems to work. We'll see if it stays that way.

I want to add the persisting error messages when trying to use the CS3 CleanScript.
It says:

1). "Product code to be zapped: {...} Registry Key Open has failed for the registry HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{product code}. This Registry does not exist.None"

And then:

2). "This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information."