Game question: How do I uninstall Empire Earth 1?

[Rath Darkblade]

I know, I know - this is a very old Sierra game, which I've had ever since I was playing it back in the Win2K days. I'd like to uninstall it, but none of the usual ways (e.g. inserting the disc and going the "Uninstall" method, or using Control Panel -> Programs -> Uninstall a Program) work.

I tried "Uninstall a program" to begin with. It brought up the usual Sierra Installshield window, and seemed to run ok, but none of the files were deleted and the "Empire Earth" entry stayed behind. This raised my suspicions. I tried inserting the disc and running the "fix the game" option... nada. I tried installing the game from the disc, and nothing happened - I should have got a "Play" option, but the first option remains "Install". As a last resort, I tried running the game with the CD in the drive... I got a mini-splash screen, fade to black, and then CTD. Bummer.

So I tried googling for an answer. It seems my only options seem to be:

1. Rooting around the registry and deleting all mentions of "Empire Earth", then deleting the files and rebooting; or
2. Downloading a "Certified" Empire Earth uninstaller - which seems dubious to me. If the website has to say that it's "certified", it's probably not kosher. [url=http://www.uninstallapp.com/article/How ... ...-1.html(Here[/url] is the link to www.uninstallapp.com - perhaps someone can disprove my doubts?)

As I'm not all that confident about messing with the Registry, I hope there may be some other option - would anyone know? Please feel free to ask for my system's specs if necessary.

Thanks for your help!

[Collector]

I am not familiar with it, but after a quick look it seems to be an InstallShield installer, which relies on a registry entry to tell it what needs to be uninstalled. If this entry was never made or was deleted the uninstaller would not be able work. Try reinstalling it from the installer, not the autorun.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmmm... there are only two .exe files on the CD - autorun.exe and setup.exe (in other words, pretty standard for late-80s-to-late-90s Sierra game CDs).

I tried running the installer, and it gave me two options:

1. "Repair" the game - i.e. install it again; or
2. "Remove" the game (uninstall it, I guess).

These options also show up when I tried pressing "Install" from the AutoRun menu, so I wasn't very confident about them. *shrug* However, I tried repairing the game, removing the game etc... nothing happened. The files are still in their default location, and aren't removed when I try to uninstall the game.

Having said that, the game runs fine when I put the CD in the drive, go to C:\Sierra\Empire Earth, and double-click on the EmpireEarth.exe file. So I guess it was installed correctly; I'm just at a loss to understand why it won't uninstall. *shrug*

[Collector]

You could just delete the folder. The only thing in the registry outside of the uninstall entry (which is probably missing) is in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Sierra On-Line\Empire Earth, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Sierra OnLine\Setup\EEARTH and HKLM\SOFTWARE\Stainless Steel Studios hives. It does make an entry in the SIERRA.INI, but beyond that, the only thing else is from the InstallShield installer itself and that does not need to be removed.

[Rath Darkblade]

OK, I have tried to do this... however, the registry entries are:

HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Sierra OnLine\Setup\EEarth
HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Sierra OnLine\Setup\EEAOC
HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Sierra On-Line\Empire Earth
HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Sierra On-Line\Empire Earth - the Art of Conquest
HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Stainless Steel Studios\Empire Earth

In other words, the game is under Wow6432Node\Sierra OnLine\Setup and Wow6432Node\Sierra On-Line, not under \Software.

Is it still safe (relatively) to delete these registry entries?

Thanks!

[Collector]

Those are just the hive redirect on x64 for old 32-bit stuff. If you launch the 32-bit version on RegEdit it will be seen where I said. It is the same key.