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[SOLVED] [2.39.01] Fails installing Winpcap, even after manualling removing it

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Shohreh:
Hello

I tried upgrading to 2.39.01, but it fails upgrading Winpcap, even after manually removing the previous version manually through Control Panel:

WinPcap 4.1.3 Setup: A previous version of WinPcap has been detected on this system and cannot be removed because in use by another application. Please close all the WinPcap-based applications and run the installer again."
--- End quote ---

Since it doesn't say _which_ application is keeping Winpcap loaded, I don't know what to try.

Any idea?

Thank you.

Shades:
The error message doesn't specify which program because the file-system doesn't say which program locks the file. It only reports that the file is locked by at least one program. Nothing more, nothing less.

By uninstalling it, most of the installed WinPcap files are removed, but there is likely still one or more .dll files of the WinPcap software in use by another program.

It is probably easiest to look for the names of the WinPcap files that remain on your computer (perhaps: C:\Program Files (x86)\WinPcap) and using the excellent Process Explorer to see all currently active processes in your computer. By double-clicking on a process you will see a tab that will give you information about which .dll files the selected process uses. Close each process that uses any of the WinPcap .dll's you found. Once you are done with that, you can install the latest version of WinPcap.

This can be quite a labor-intensive way, depending on the amount of active processes on your computer.

Since you already uninstalled it, a full reboot of your PC is easier. Because then all the processes are reset and as there is an incomplete version of the WinPcap on the system, no process will make use of this incomplete version anymore. This allows you to get rid of remaining files yourself, if the installer of the updated WinPcap software doesn't take care of that automagically.

Shohreh:
Thanks for the info.

There are no trace left of Winpcap under C:\Program Files, and the CLI Listdlls.exe application has no mention of "winpcap".

I guess I'll save everything and reboot (something I try to avoid because it takes a while to save/close/reload everything I have opened on my computer).

Shohreh:
Rebooted, tried again with all apps closed: Same result.

What should I do to investigate?

Shades:
That would indicate there is an background service on your computer that prevents you from installing a new version of WinPcap.

The easiest step is to start your Windows PC in safe mode and check if the updated WinPcap installer can remove the old one.

Realize that the WinPcap software hooks into your software Windows requires, else it won't be able catch network traffic. This software needs to be able to work on a level very close to the networking hardware in your computer. Windows is not fond of this kind of software and required you to reboot the first time you installed it.

So, while I understand you don't like to reboot your computer, with installing and removing this kind of software you must. Because if you don't, you'll quickly find yourself in a mess similar to this one.

When in safe mode, if the updated installer cannot get rid of the old WinPcap installation, you will need to find out which background service blocks the installation.

Process explorer (part of the Sysinternals Suite) will be a great help. Dependency Walker is another very good investigation tool. While I don't think these tools are hard to use, you might think otherwise. Please read their online manuals, because you will be the one doing the legwork.

Next time you go on an "adventure" like this, Use a free tool such as RevoUninstaller (scroll to the bottom of that page to find the freeware version) for removing software from your computer. While the Windows control panel gives you the illusion of removing software, it often doesn't. With a tool like RevoUninstaller you will be amazed about the amount of crap that remains after Windows reported it removed software from your system.

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