Developer Forum

We recently had a problem with a push install of MDAC 2.8 SP1 (latest
available version) to Windows 2000 Pro workstations, varying SP levels.
Some machines failed to install correctly. Component checker reported
MDAC 2.53 and attempts to reinstall 2.8 SP1 finished without actually
doing anything, apparently detecting that the same or newer version was
already installed. After some searching, we found references to four
registry keys that, when removed, would allow MDAC to be reinstalled.
I added the registry keys to a .reg file, placing a minus (-) at the
beginning of the line just inside the first bracket, an undocumented
switch that will delete entire keys. I ran the reg file, which did
delete the keys, and a subsequent reinstallation of MDAC 2.8 SP1 was
successful.

Here are the entire contents of the .reg file, between the lines of
underscores:
_________________________________________________________________________
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ExceptionComponents\{A2F3B5A7-2D39-4A4E-96E6-BFADEBCBB27B}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ExceptionComponents\{F1CAE27D-85D3-4642-B9E9-48D7F9F56C82}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ExceptionComponents\{E9A84D17-E5C1-4890-A557-4460207F6AAF}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ExceptionComponents\{BA63DE4B-CAD8-49C5-A3F2-E976BEB019C8}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ExceptionComponents\{B15C73EE-0AD0-41C2-BC15-D0A623F0078C}]
_________________________________________________________________________

Although I haven't tested this on other OS's, registry exports from XP
or Server 2003 also list Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 at the
top of the file. I actually exported the existing keys to .reg files
and copied the line containing the key, the one with the square
brackets at either end.[...], to a new file, adding the minus, then ran
it on the other affected machines.