You'll also notice I never said I reinstalled because of the error I was having (I eventually found a FixIt to do it), but the reinstalls were for other things.
The corrupted registry is just indicative of a problem which really should not happen.
a) If a corrupted registry key is stopping something happening, then why doesn't it take any action to try and resolve it?
b) If an error code has a documented fix online, why was I not taken to it, or, even better, the fix placed in the distributable?
c) Why should I have to remember random error codes at all? Why doesn't it give me an error message I can understand and at least try and take some action on?
What I find a bit odd about this whole thread is that you seem to take issue with the idea that one of Microsoft's own libraries not working means the OS is otherwise fine. Why not take the view that it's a library that's not distributed with the main install, but is a part of Windows? The Visual C++ libraries are used all the time. I feel like if we were talking about Ubuntu, where the packages are always separated, we wouldn't be drawing this invisible line between what is and isn't the OS.
At the risk of showing myself to be the inexperienced user that I am, I have had the same problem but have not yet been able to resolve it. Lewisham, please could you tell me how/where you found the fixit? Thanks so much.
The corrupted registry is just indicative of a problem which really should not happen.
a) If a corrupted registry key is stopping something happening, then why doesn't it take any action to try and resolve it? b) If an error code has a documented fix online, why was I not taken to it, or, even better, the fix placed in the distributable? c) Why should I have to remember random error codes at all? Why doesn't it give me an error message I can understand and at least try and take some action on?
What I find a bit odd about this whole thread is that you seem to take issue with the idea that one of Microsoft's own libraries not working means the OS is otherwise fine. Why not take the view that it's a library that's not distributed with the main install, but is a part of Windows? The Visual C++ libraries are used all the time. I feel like if we were talking about Ubuntu, where the packages are always separated, we wouldn't be drawing this invisible line between what is and isn't the OS.