Uninstalling ArcGIS 9.3.1 On Microsoft Windows 7 Throws A File In Use Prompt From It’s Own Setup

This is something interesting I came across this evening. I decided to remove ArcGIS 9.3.1 from my laptop as I was going to install ArcGIS 9.4. This was the first time I was uninstalling ArcGIS 9.3.1 from Windows 7 so I wondered if there were going to be any problems.

Interestingly enough, as I was following through the uninstall wizard I came across an prompt.

After the uninstall had validated, it throw a file in use prompt. At the time, I thought that I maybe had previous setup that hadn’t completed properly so I decided to reboot. After a reboot I got the same message.

I decided to check the Task Manager for the process. Well it turns out that the process is actually the ArcGIS 9.3.1 uninstall itself!

A few options to fix this. Umm end the setup.exe process? or you can just click ignore. So far it looks like this cause a prompt for reboot after the uninstall is finished. Hopefully it doesn’t cause any other problems!

Something to note when you are uninstalling ArcGIS 9.3.1 on Windows 7.