BUG: Removing VC Prior to Installing VS6 SP1 Results in Failure

• Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 SP1 (end user)
• Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Editions, version 6.0

SYMPTOMS

If you have Visual C++ 6.0 installed as part of Visual Studio 6.0 and remove Visual C++ 6.0 prior to installing Visual Studio Service Pack 1, the subsequent installation of Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 1 will fail with the following error:

Because setup did not detect any Visual Studio 6.0 products on your system, the service pack will not be installed.

CAUSE

When you remove Visual C++, you also remove a value within the registry that Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 1 uses to detect if Visual Studio is installed. Visual C++ removes the registry value VSCommonDir under HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\6.0\Setup\. This value contains the full path of your Visual Studio common directory.

IMPORTANT: The registry key is noted as information. Modification of the registry is strongly not recommended.

RESOLUTION

To regenerate this registry key you need to do one of the following:

• Reinstall Visual Studio 6.0.



• Install another product in the Visual Studio suite (for example, Visual Basic).



• Reinstall Visual C++ 6.0.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: failure setup sp1

Keywords          : kbVS600SP1 kbVC600SP1 
Version           : WINDOWS:6.0 SP1 (end user); winnt:6.0
Platform          : WINDOWS winnt 
Issue type        : kbbug 

Last Reviewed: April 14, 1999