Can not open paint.net and it will not uninstall or update

[Madi]

I've been using the program for years with no problems.  After letting my teenager  borrow it for a few weeks, I can't get the program to open, or uninstall.  I tried a system restore, and still no luck.  I have no idea what he did to it, but any ideas at all would be greatly appreciated.  I'll list out my actions to be clear, sorry for how long this is.

 

My OS is windows XP, service pack 3

 

When I try to open the program, this is the message I recieve -

 

Paint.NET has detected that some important installation files are missing.  If you click the Repair button it will attempt to repair this and then continue loading.

The missing files are -
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.DE.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.ES.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.FR.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.IT.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.JA.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.PT-BR.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.ru-RU.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.2.resources
PaintDotNet.Strings.3.ZH-CN.resources

I then press repair, the command box opens and inside it says -

* Opening registry key, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paint.NET: --- Error:

Then an error box opens that says -

Paint.NET Repair Utility has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvenience.

When I close that, another error box opens that says -

Paint.NET has encountered a problem and needs to close.  WE are sorry for the inconvenience.

 

 

So I tried to unistall the program, so I could simply reinstall it.  I go to Add or Remove Programs and select remove Paint.net.  It opens an error message that says -

 

There is a problem with this Windows installer package.  A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected.  Contact your support personnel or package vendor.

 

Then -

 

Fatal error during installation.

 

Trying to repair the program comes up with the same messages as trying to uninstall it.

 

After reading through other threads here, I realised I had version 3.5.5, so I downloaded the latest, 3.5.10 and tried to install it.  It begins the installation, unpacking etc, then the installation box dissappears and an error box opens as below -

 

Paint.NET setup Front-End has encountered a problem and needs to close.  We are sorry for the inconvience.

 

 

Is there any way to fix this, or completely get paint.net off my computer so I can start again?  Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

 

 

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

You've provided some good info. That helps us help you. It sounds like you have tried the logical stuff, so the problem is more difficult than that to resolve. Don't worry though!

Go and read this thread Installation Issues Thread. Read all of it then revisit the section that refers to the Windows Installer Cleanup tool. That's what you need to use to remove all traces of the existing installation. Then download a brand new copy of Paint.NET and install that (note item 8 in the troubleshooting thread).

Please post back here if you have further difficulties.

Good luck !