Uninstalling wants me to close EVERY application

montek

I am having a problem with version 3 not working with SQL 2005 Management Studio (it used to work; I don't know what hapened), so I thought I would uninstall it and reinstall it. When I go to uninstall it, it wants me to close almost everything I have open. I can't imagine what this tool has to do with Microsoft Word, Outlook, or Firefox.

I've detected this before when trying to uninstall it (for the purposes of reinstalling it) and it's quite annoying. I'm assuming it's safe to just say "Ignore" the request to close those applications.

I did close Management Studio, Query Analyzer, and Visual Studio.

montek

Also, it seems that even though I've uninstalled the application, it's still running in my tray. Shouldn't it tell me if I need to reboot to clear it out? Ugh.

ScottShelby

Montek,

I have the same issue. Just in the last week I get a blank error box when I start SSMS and a delay before the studio becomes available. So I decided to uninstall and reinstall however the task tray never went away and no reboot was required.

The problem I'm having is that SQL Prompt still shows up in the menu bar of SSMS and I'm still getting the error even though the whole program group is gone.

How do I clean up the previous installation so that I don't get these issues anymore?

Scott

jeljeljel

When uninstalling I too was asked to close all applications.

Bart Read

I believe this is due to a file locking issue with the Query Analyzer support: in order to delete one of the DLLs we need all applications to shut down.

SSMS lacks the interface required to remove menu items (no, I'm not joking) so you unfortunately have to remove the menua manually. Right click the menu bar, then click "Customize". Then drag the SQL Prompt menu off the menu bar and let go of it. It should disappear completely. This process is detailed more fully in the help file.


Thanks,
Bart

Lionel

Hi

To clarify the reason that SQL Prompt wants you to close lots of unrelated applications is because SQL Prompt uses a windows hook. The windows hook puts a small dll inside all applications that load up after the tray app has been started. This dll looks to see if the application is Query Analyser. If it is then it loads SQL Prompt. If it isn't then it exits but the dll doesn't get unloaded from the process. The uninstaller looks to see what processes have that dll loaded and asks you to close them to make sure we can delete the dll. This is why it asks you to close lots of applications seemingly at random. For more information look at the SetWindowsHookEx documentation.

Lionel

Unfortunately we have not found a way of removing the SQL Prompt menu from SSMS on uninstalling (Not for lack of trying I can assure you). I have cut and pasted the following from the help (I am feeling lazy) which tells you how to remove the menu.

In SQL Server Management Studio, to remove the SQL Prompt menu from the toolbar, do the following:
On the Tools menu, click Customize.
Drag the SQL Prompt menu from the menu bar, or right-click the SQL Prompt menu and click Delete.
Close the Customize dialog box.