TS1 Uninstall - "An installation support file could not be installed. Catastrophic failure"

I'm trying to uninstall TS1 and I keep getting this message when I go to remove it with Add/Remove Programs. I know it installed properly because it launches fine (though I do have to run it as admin). I even re-copied the crack to the install folder. Is there something else I need to do? My OS is Windows 10.

astrogeist wrote:I'm trying to uninstall TS1 and I keep getting this message when I go to remove it with Add/Remove Programs. I know it installed properly because it launches fine (though I do have to run it as admin). I even re-copied the crack to the install folder. Is there something else I need to do? My OS is Windows 10.

Welcome to the G4TW Forums @astrogeist,

If you want to uninstall the game, I would recommend using third-party uninstallers, and not the built-in function from Windows. G4TW for example has the program "Your Un-installer Pro", which you can download from the (old G4TW) website here:
https://games4theworld.org/downloads/

It's under the "Software"-column.

Now...after you installed the program and get to the main menu, where all programs are listed, double-click on The Sims 1. Choose "Super Mode", and follow through with the on-screen instructions. The way the program works is that if the un-installer cannot remove something in the "normal" way, it will just remove the installation files and registry entries.

But see for yourself it the Your Un-installer program works, in your case. Good luck for now!



P.S. if you are very confident in knowing what you do, you can simply remove the install folders/files manually, and then specifically search the registry for entries named "The Sims 1". The problem with that method is, you have to read very carefully what kind of registry entries you are about to delete. And you can/should even make a backup of your entire registry before of thinking of doing that. I won't go into more details here, unless needed later on.

The_gh0stm4an: Thanks for the reply. The uninstallation worked, however I managed to break things more than they were before; midway through re-installation I accidentally closed the window instead of minimizing it (that's what I get for multitasking and jumping between programs--didn't even register the "Are you sure you want to close" popup until after I already had ), and apparently it installed just enough so that the launcher gives me the "Play" option instead of "Install". However, YU doesn't have it listed as a program so I can't clean the files out and start over, and I don't have any restore points in my system despite YU saying it had created one. I can't find anything in my registry that's clearly tied to TS1 either. Other than waiting until I can time-travel and stop myself from being an idiot, do I have any other options to clean things out?

astrogeist wrote:The_gh0stm4an: Thanks for the reply. The uninstallation worked, however I managed to break things more than they were before; midway through re-installation I accidentally closed the window instead of minimizing it (that's what I get for multitasking and jumping between programs--didn't even register the "Are you sure you want to close" popup until after I already had ), and apparently it installed just enough so that the launcher gives me the "Play" option instead of "Install". However, YU doesn't have it listed as a program so I can't clean the files out and start over, and I don't have any restore points in my system despite YU saying it had created one. I can't find anything in my registry that's clearly tied to TS1 either. Other than waiting until I can time-travel and stop myself from being an idiot, do I have any other options to clean things out?

First of all I apologize for the slightly belated response,

Besides some 'issues' that we are still working on with regards to the Forum here (which are still not resolved ), I myself am also busier than usual. So that is my excuse.

So I did a quick duckduckgo-search, a.k.a. not using Google, but I wasn't really able to find a comprehensive resource that specifically dealt with the manual removal of The Sims 1.

What I can offer is, that I go onto the chatbox at some point, and you will then come online there too. If you agree, we can try and do a TeamViewer session. If you did not know, it is a small (free) program that allows me to temporarily "control" your PC for a little while, but you can abort the process anytime by using your mouse yourself. But it is a tool that we have been using on here...for quite many years, for individual help.

Please note that I typically only show up on here during afternoons (4PM), Central European Time. So if you live elsewhere, it might get tricky. Feel free to check back from time to time, to see if I am online, and we'll try and arrange sometime. I have the game myself installed, so I can check out the available registry entries to "get used to them", and hopefully be able to get rid of them in your own system.



P.S. that does not help you, but I think these issues are the reason why many more "modern" cracked AND legal games are moving away from this model of oldschool installers. And instead, like in Steam, you simply have a folder with the game install. And you "uninstall" such a game by simply removing the folder. Simple, and virtually noob-proof.

The_gh0stm4n wrote:

astrogeist wrote:The_gh0stm4an: Thanks for the reply. The uninstallation worked, however I managed to break things more than they were before; midway through re-installation I accidentally closed the window instead of minimizing it (that's what I get for multitasking and jumping between programs--didn't even register the "Are you sure you want to close" popup until after I already had ), and apparently it installed just enough so that the launcher gives me the "Play" option instead of "Install". However, YU doesn't have it listed as a program so I can't clean the files out and start over, and I don't have any restore points in my system despite YU saying it had created one. I can't find anything in my registry that's clearly tied to TS1 either. Other than waiting until I can time-travel and stop myself from being an idiot, do I have any other options to clean things out?

First of all I apologize for the slightly belated response,

Besides some 'issues' that we are still working on with regards to the Forum here (which are still not resolved  ), I myself am also busier than usual. So that is my excuse.

So I did a quick duckduckgo-search, a.k.a. not using Google, but I wasn't really able to find a comprehensive resource that specifically dealt with the manual removal of The Sims 1.

What I can offer is, that I go onto the chatbox at some point, and you will then come online there too. If you agree, we can try and do a TeamViewer session. If you did not know, it is a small (free) program that allows me to temporarily "control" your PC for a little while, but you can abort the process anytime by using your mouse yourself. But it is a tool that we have been using on here...for quite many years, for individual help.

Please note that I typically only show up on here during afternoons (4PM), Central European Time. So if you live elsewhere, it might get tricky. Feel free to check back from time to time, to see if I am online, and we'll try and arrange sometime. I have the game myself installed, so I can check out the available registry entries to "get used to them", and hopefully be able to get rid of them in your own system.



P.S. that does not help you, but I think these issues are the reason why many more "modern" cracked AND legal games are moving away from this model of oldschool installers. And instead, like in Steam, you simply have a folder with the game install. And you "uninstall" such a game by simply removing the folder. Simple, and virtually noob-proof.

I suppose I'll check the chatbox from time to time then. There's a (roughly) nine hour time difference between us, so I'm not sure how likely it is that we'd manage to negotiate a specific time to be online. On a related note, the chatbox is giving me a "You are disconnected" message, even when I click the actual chatbox link--any ideas as to why that might be?

It's funny you mention this being an era of "noob-proof" uninstallations because all I can think about is being a kid and feeling so tech-savvy when it came to this stuff and now I think back in amazement at the fact that I never once corrupted the hard drives of our family computer. I think I tried deleting install paths as a method of software removal at least a handful of times.