I'm at approximately hour 27 trying to avoid having to reinstall Windows after attempting to uninstall RMC8. After managing to restore most of my working applications, I did a 'clean' install followed by an immediate uninstall of RMC8 just to see what would happen. The system said it uninstalled, but Roxio left everything in place, including the drag-to-disk startup. Even after shutting that off, I had to manually quanrantine a service that they left running. Even then, the registry was littered with hundreds of residual references that I had to clean up with a registry editor, and it didn't get all of them, so I had to go in and delete about 30 of them by hand. BTW, I tried using the Windows Cleanup Install utility, and all that does is get the entry out of your installed applications list.

All of this for the privilege of using a program which, when attempting to author a DVD, you have to save your work about every 2 minutes because that's about how long it takes for the software to crash and lose everything you've done since the last save. I loved the comment by the guy (who probably works for Roxio) that blamed the person who bought the software for causing the mess. No wonder people are reluctant to pay for software...

The steps for a "Clean Install" are in Roxio's knowledgebase. The pre-install steps should remove all traces of the software for you.


*** CLEAN INSTALL LINKS ****
XP: http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/Creator/000086CR
Vista: http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/Creator/000127CR

I feel your pain.

Have you given up?

I don't understand why Roxio makes it so hard to fix the problem in the first place. If you call them it costs $30.00 to fix the problem. Don't you think it should be Free it you buy the software.

I do not dis-agree with you.. Nobody around here likes me very much as I am very critical of Roxio. In a previous life, I was a professional programmer but things have certainly changed these days. With that said, there are a few flaws in the suite which I consider inexcusable but some users report that they have no problems. I however, seem to have some of the same problems on different rigs with different hardware and other variables.

There is much better software(s) available when it comes to ease of installation and reliability but I have found they are designed for specific tasks.

However the Roxio Suite is the most feature packed. I must admit, I do not use some of the apps. I typically make DVD's that include home movies and slide shows. I don't do a lot of audio editing except for ripping store bought CD's and turn them into MP3's. I can not remember the last time I had to mix 5.1 surround sound but I have done it and I have yet to transfer an LP or tape to MP3.

Just a bit of advise from where I sit... If you are serious about wanting the Roxio suite as part of your software arsenal, save your 30 bucks trying to get V8 running.

Spend 50 bucks (49.95) for a registered user upgrade and purchase V9 (I think you can get the deluxe package which includes an analog to usb import device for the same price price and a few more menu themes). Buy it online incase you decide it is not for you and Roxio will refund your hard earned money.

Before you install V9, follow the clean install instructions which have been provided in earlier posts to make sure all instances of the V8 have been removed.

Now here is another tip which I am not going to charge you for....

Install the suite AFTER following the instructions for removing any smagma left behind by the previous install including the content (meaning, install the content CD or file).

Reboot the computer... DO NOT launch any of the apps.
Do a repair install from the Add/Remove Programs from the control panel.
Reboot the computer again.
Now you should be good to go..

A little explanation may be in order:

Using registry trackers and utilities as well as other utilities that let me know what is running which I do not know about, I have concluded the following:

For application B to work properly, application A must be in place including all registry entries, drivers, and programs. Application B looks for application A and if not in place (in place does not mean the file is existing on the hard drive, it means that it must be running and the registry entries must be read), it will not make its own adjustments to properly run.

Hence.... Install, reboot, then do a repair install. After that, you may opt to remove what I feel as unnecessary garbage like Ringtones, D2D, Sightspeed (maybe Sightseed... I donno)

You may be saying "BarryWare.... you are full of it!" OK.. I accept that. However, I have a computer around that I have been intensionally screwing up. After the screw up, I go after it with the information my utilities have provided and the above is what I have found. I have spent months playing with this.

Now... This should give you an installation with all apps working without crashing your rig. BUTT.....

This is a big BUTT (no pun intended).... There are still a few flaws in the suite. Multiple burns does not work, audio is out of sync most (but not all) of the time, etc.. However, I must say again that some report they have no issues at all with the suite. I DO though.

One thing I forgot to mention.... Make sure your rig meets the minimum system requirements. If not, then most of the problems you may experience may be self inflicted.

I hope this helped a bit. Let me know your intentions and how it turned out.