Earlier today, I had an error coming up while installing a piece of Microsoft software: ‘The Installation/Removal of a Previous Program Was Not Completed’. After a search in both the filesystem and registry, I ended up finding the culprit in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager section. Apparently, one of its keys (PendingFileOperations) was still not empty, therefore not allowing me to continue installation.
The registry: what can one say about that monstreous part of Windows. Here’s something I’ve been wondering about: why was there no ‘datestamp’/’timestamp’ field added to (any) key added or modified in the registry? It would have saved time to figure out which key was added.