VMware Workstation 7 installation problem - "Failed to create the requested registry key"

This morning I've been struggling with an issue I encountered while installing VMware Workstation 7 (7.1.0-261024) on my laptop running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I was prompted with an error right after the installation process just started:

Failed to create the requested registry key

Key: Installer

Error: 1021

I tried to search Internet for helps as usual but none of the suggestions worked in my case. Finally I decided to try something on my own based on what I'd learned from their explanations. It looked like there's some permission issue with the VMware installer writing a key into my Windows Registry since I updated my Windows 7 just recently (note that I had been able to install the same VMware version on this particular laptop before I re-formatted my Windows 7 and updated the latest patches). The 'key' here is referring to {HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.}.

What I did was, uninstalled the existing VMware Remote Console on my laptop (I was using VMware Server as well), then did a search-and-destroy of those suspicious keys in my Registry. In fact, you must uninstall all other versions of VMware products before you can install a different product (the installation process would automatically prompt you to do that but in my case the problem hit before that). And use the keyword 'vmware' to search for targets to delete in your Registry (basically I only deleted those keys which were supposedly used by VMware programs only but not Windows). The rule of thumb is to backup your Registry of course.

Then I tried my luck again, and wholla! It finally completed the installation. Credits to my predecessors who faced the same problem and shared their ideas on the mighty Internet.

Flickr ~ Don't try this at home kids.

Don't try this at home kids., originally uploaded by kennymatic.

Wow... I can use that too!

1st ever trip to Hong Kong (25th-28th Oct 2010)

I'm on a mission assigned by the boss. So here I am now. 1st night since arrival - not much discovery made yet. Probably I should have set some expectations before I came, just to add spice a little bit.

Well, tomorrow onwards I'm gonna have my fellow work friends bring me around HK to discover the right places.

Oh ya, one really bad impression with Hong Kong's hawker. I got conned by the wanton mee hawker!! Based on my own calculation it should have been just HK22, not HK30 like what he charged me!! Damn you bald uncle. But I was afraid because I was alone and don't know if he has "friends" suddenly come out of nowhere or not... :S

I'm investing in better life with my life now

Just wish my efforts won't be wasted...

But then another question pops in my mind... Is it going to get worse if I move on like this forever?

I'm crossing my fingers now...

Oh no! Facebook has killed my blog and emails and messengers and my time!!

When I realized it, Facebook has already overwhelmed my life and taken everything from me - my blog, my emails, my messengers, my pc games, and most of all my Internet life!! Now I don't surf the net the way I used to find new and interesting stuff. Now I don't share stuff with my friends in emails. Now I don't chat with my friends to keep in touch with them except visiting their Facebook profiles. Now I don't... I don't... live my Internet life the way I used to any more!!

So what's next Facebook?

Flickr ~ Pac-Manic

Pac-Manic, originally uploaded by [a.m.photography].

Creative!

I used to have an idea of a "see-through" desktop wallpaper that lets you "see through" to the inside of a computer display, you know, all the wiring and electronic parts inside (basically an illusion of course). But seems like now people have gone way beyond my original idea.

Finally resolved the USB issue I had with VMware due to the Sony Ericsson driver (seehcri.sys)

Since yesterday, I've been struggling with resolving the issue I had with connecting my USB scanner to my VMware OS. Every time when I booted up my VM, I received a message saying "USB controller initialization failed". So I searched on the Internet hoping to find a clue about what's going on. At first I found nothing specific to the problem I was facing. Then some guy suggested in a forum to use a utility called DebugView (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx) during the VM boot process to diagnose the cause of problem (million credits to this guy). Then only from there I found this important clue "seehcri.sys" showing up. Then I continued to google this clue and that's when Sony Ericsson came out on my screen (I installed its software and uninstalled it sometime ago). Damn... this problem almost caused me a heart attack because the first time I realized about it was when I was preparing for a software demo using my VM and the bloody Sony Ericsson driver just stopped my VM from connecting the USB scanner for me! Phew... That was the past nightmare now... I have survived in the end.

And today I continued to search for a solution to this and finally I found the tricks:

1. On my host computer, I could see a Sony Ericsson device listed under the Universal Serial Bus controllers (Control Panel > System > Device Manager) though I had uninstalled my Sony Ericsson program sometime ago.
2. Disabling and uninstalling it would not solve the problem as Windows would detect it again and put back the Sony Ericsson driver in place. So I needed a "total" "annihilation" of this driver.
3. So I uninstalled the Sony Ericsson device first, then I searched my computer (mainly C:\Windows\) for the file "seehcri.sys" and I killed all of them.
4. I restarted my computer after that. Then I found out all my USB root hubs listed in the same place as step no. 1 were having some driver problem and none of them worked!
5. And so lastly I just needed to reinstall the driver for all the USB root hubs one by one, by manually picking up the 2nd USB Root Hub driver from the list when Windows asked me for a signed driver. This was the trickiest part, as you would be presented with 2 signed USB Root Hub drivers, both with the same name! And you could now guess it - the 1st driver was indeed the Sony Ericsson driver (damn you). And if you tried to pick the 1st one to install it would prompt you for the location of the file - "seehcri.sys" (I already deleted all of them from my computer in step no. 3).

So the result? Whoooola! I finally got my USB scanner to work once again in my VM! But my demo was due yesterday :(. Anyway, just thought of posting it here so it might help somebody with the same problem again. Thank you Sony Ericsson... Thank you very much...

It's New Year time again

Last year was quite a challenging year to me as I was stuffed with works which I have never been acquainted to do. There were basically 2 parts - one part to deal with the systems, another to deal with the people. That's the scope of presales, in my way of explanation.

First, I'd like to comment about dealing with people. As a Scorpio who tends to be low-profile and keeps quiet and cool most the time, doing pre-sales activities which inherently means getting to know more people and hanging around with them, has been quite a daunting and scary job to me. Till now, I'm still trying to adjust myself to accomodate with the environment but I guess it's gonna take some time and (interpersonal) skill improvements.

Now let's talk about the systems side. I thought, as I've been thinking all along, until now, dealing with systems, or more specifically software, should be a very interesting and tireless task for me, like I was born to do it. But dealing with other people's systems? What I mean here is the vendors' systems. NO, not as much fun as I do it with my own hands (please get it 'straight'). Problems, problems, problems... Yes, I understand no system is perfect. But how about systems with fundamental in-built mistakes? Where the heck was QC? Who let this thing out to the market in the first place? All these questions then turned into doubts, against the vendors and ourselves.

So what's gonna change in year 2010? I really have no idea but to take the first step out into the war zone again. May angels watch over me all the time. Cheers~