Error: Program must close to allow a previous installation..

[Dools]

Thanks for the info, it worked a treat!

If you are receiving this message when attempting to start Firefox and a restart has no effect :

Open the Firefox installation directory (usually C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox) and delete the file "xpicleanup.dat" [4].

Windows Vista:
Open the C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox folder and delete the file "xpicleanup.dat" (you may need to first end the "xpicleanup" process, if found, in Windows Task Manager and delete the file "xpicleanup.exe" in the Firefox installation directory)

[Becca_Moonbeam]

I have tried everything listed in this thread to get Firefox to work on my computer. I am running Windows Vista Home Basic(it came on the computer I just bought)and installed Firefox. It run fine. Then I tried to install flash player in Firefox, and everytime I tried to open it, it would give me the message: "The program must close to allow a previous installation attempt to complete. Please restart." I have deleted xpicleanup.dat under the program file, the app data under my user name, and the ended the process on the task manager. I have gotten this message everytime I try to install a plugin, and I finally had to uninstall Firefox and reinstall it numerous times. But every time I uninstall, then reinstall, I have to install the plugins again, and the same thing happens again. I don't know what to do now, because Firefox will not launch, and I don't feel like unistalling and reinstalling it again. Does anybody have any suggestions to fix this problem?

[Guest]

I have the exact thing happened on vista business. I think this is a BUG for firefox. The latest ff also has this problem. Now I cleaned up all firefox related files from my computer and back to IE7.

I have tried everything listed in this thread to get Firefox to work on my computer. I am running Windows Vista Home Basic(it came on the computer I just bought)and installed Firefox. It run fine. Then I tried to install flash player in Firefox, and everytime I tried to open it, it would give me the message: "The program must close to allow a previous installation attempt to complete. Please restart." I have deleted xpicleanup.dat under the program file, the app data under my user name, and the ended the process on the task manager. I have gotten this message everytime I try to install a plugin, and I finally had to uninstall Firefox and reinstall it numerous times. But every time I uninstall, then reinstall, I have to install the plugins again, and the same thing happens again. I don't know what to do now, because Firefox will not launch, and I don't feel like unistalling and reinstalling it again. Does anybody have any suggestions to fix this problem?

[dickvl]

If you uninstall Firefox then make sure that you delete the Firefox program folder as well, there may be files left in that folder.
You can also try to backup your profile and remove the entire Firefox folder in AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\

[agardenlily]

Dan's problem happened to me. I am running Windows Vista and was very curious what "xpicleanup.exe" was as I researched that it belonged to Mozilla and I too, downloaded Firefox (the newest version, I forget the #) and got the same message Dan did. Thanks to Swami for how to fix it. I was determined to be able to load Firefox. Earlier I had contacted Dell Support and the man was terrific and Firefox worked 1x then that message came again after a lot of the support tech's time. I haven't tried Swami's suggestion but am going to now. I am just so happy to see that other people had the same thing happen to them.

Now when I try to open Firefox, I get the following error message:

"The program must close to allow a previous installation attempt to complete. Please restart."

Dan[/quote]

[Guest]

I installed Firefox on a Vista machine, and it was running just fine until I installed an add-in (can't remember which) and the browser crashed. When I tried to restart Firefox, I got a message that the program had not finished installing. Nothing would get me past that point, so I uninstalled Firefox, and downloaded the install file a second time.

Now, I am in the nxpiclean.exe purgatory.

I have followed all the suggestions, made numerous attempts to reinstall, but no luck.

Obviously, a problem that dates back to 2005 cannot be Vista-related.

If it weren't for MSIE, I'd have no browser at all.

[agardenlily]

I installed Firefox on a Vista machine, and it was running just fine until I installed an add-in (can't remember which) and the browser crashed. When I tried to restart Firefox, I got a message that the program had not finished installing. Nothing would get me past that point, so I uninstalled Firefox, and downloaded the install file a second time.

Now, I am in the nxpiclean.exe purgatory.

I have followed all the suggestions, made numerous attempts to reinstall, but no luck.

Obviously, a problem that dates back to 2005 cannot be Vista-related.

If it weren't for MSIE, I'd have no browser at all.

Dear Waterwild: Yes, that is what happened to me. Just now I am trying a suggestion from the beginning of this Forum from Swami to to into C Program files Mozilla Firefox and delete xpicleanup.exe. I went to C Program Files but I only see Mozilla Firefox and not the xpi file. However, the comptuer won't let me delete the Mozilla Firefox file (I have uninstalled Firefox from Control Panel yesterday). Further investigations to be done by me . . . what a pain. On my Win 2000 Firefox worked with no problem. I think there is some incompatibility with Vista. Sincerely (to all) Catherine

[curvymommy]

I am running Windows XP Professional, with SP2, on a Dell Latitude laptop. Up until yesterday, Firefox 2.0.0.1 was working fine. Yesterday I installed the Flash9 plugin, AND the automatic update attempted to install 2.0.0.2.

When I started my computer this morning, I got the following message:
“The program must close to allow a previous installation attempt to complete. Please restart.”

So of course I did, but it didn’t help.

I’ve tried all the suggestions for fixing this problem, however, I cannot delete this file: 'xpicleanup.dat' When I try to do so, I get the following error:

"Cannot delete xpicleanup: Access is denied.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use."

In fact, I cannot delete ANY file from the Firefox install directory, not even a .txt file.

I tried changing the properties on the Mozilla Firefox directory to remove Read-Only, but it won’t stick, and keeps going back to Read-Only. I am an administrator on this machine, and can delete other things from the Program Files directory, so not sure why it won’t let me delete or change ANY files in the Program Files\Mozilla Firefox directory.

I have checked Task Manager, and xpicleanup.exe is NEVER running as a process, so I can't delete it from there.

Finally, I cannot uninstall Firefox 2.0.x from Add/Remove Programs. I click Remove and nothing happens. I was able to install Firefox 1.5 (but still got the “previous installation…please restart” error when I tried to run Firefox). However, I was able to successfully uninstall Firefox from Add/Remove programs at that point.

I’ve tried everything that has been suggested to fix this, with no success. I am SO frustrated. This is my work laptop, but IT won’t help me because Firefox is not a supported browser in my company. So I’m on my own. Please don’t make me use IE!

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should try next? Any help would be much appreciated!

[dickvl]

Make sure that you have sufficient administrator permissions for the Fx program folder.
You can check the security tab (effective premissions) in the properties.
You can try to boot windows in Safe mode (F8 on boot screen).

[wes89nh]

Thanks for the help after deleting it, it solved the problem!

[Guest]

I had the same problems after installing plug ins with Vista. I read through the last couple of pages of this thread. I did the steps below first to get the plug ins installed so the installation finished. Then I resarted the computer. I then tried to delete the xpicleanup.exe file from Program files\Mozilla but it said I wasn't authorized. I tried deleting the xpicleanup.dat file also but it wouldn't let me. So I went to task manager and stopped all Mozilla programs and xpicleanups in both the application and processes tabs. Then it allowed me to delete those files and it fixed it. Before I changed the settings in the flash player and finished installing it, it wouldn't ever allow me to delete those files for whatever reason.
Thanks for all the good info!!

One of the opened tabs that was waiting for me to check out in my attempt to figure out what to do turned out to be the Macromedia Flash Player forums with the following fix:

"This question was answered by theopenworld, on Saturday, February 17, 2007 8:42 AM

Answer
Hi all,
I installed Windows Vista Ultimate last weekend, and like many I found that the flash player did not work on many sites including YouTube etc.

Well, the good news is I think I have the fix that many of you have been looking for:

I navigated my way to:

C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash

Then right clicked over both 'Flash9b.ocx' and 'FlashUtil9b.exe', and chose properties.

In properties choose the 'security' tab > Click on the 'everyone' account, and the button called 'edit' and then tick the box called 'allow full control' and also choose your own Windows local account name.

Once you have done this for both files run the FlashUtil9b.exe and it should install and update and tell you to restart. Do so and you should find that YouTube and other sites that use flash now work.

Let me know how you get on."

With an alternative by other members being:
"Great fix Daniel, here's a slightly easier way to go about it.

Vista (32bit) go to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed folder

Vista(64bit) go to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed folder

open the folder and right click on FlashUtil9b.exe, then left click run as administrator. The flash player installer should now start and once it completes, flash player should work fine and appear on the uninstall or change program list.

This issue is related to how Windows Vista's security features prevent applications from changing registry settings (even if you are logged in as an administrator) you must explicitly allow programs to make certain changes to the registry. "

Source: <a href="http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=44&catid=184&threadid=1243464&enterthread=y">FORUMS : Macromedia Flash Player</a>
(note: yeah I realized the forums here don't do auto-clicky for URLs this time around )

[RichardParker50]

I have tried to reinstall Firefox 2 on a Vista system. I get the above error but I cannot delete the xpicleanup file (.exe in this case). Is there another workround in Vista?

[malliz]

Vista is very picky about administrator rites you are logged in as administrator when your trying to delete the file aren't you?

[Guest]

Update: Problem solved on Vista + Firefox 2.0

Go to c:\Users\[your_username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Mozila Firefox\ and delete xpicleanup.dat. It will start launching normally from shortcuts.

PS: This of course should be done after killing xpicleanup process in the Task Manager (if needed) and deleting xpicleanup.exe from c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! FINALLY A WORKING SOLUTION (WITH VISTA x64 & FIREFOX2). been driving me nuts for hours!

Yes, it works !

[WOotNoObPwND]

Ive also tried everything shown here what worked for me was removing the xpi file as well as going to the icon right click go to properties then run as administrator and check to run in compatability mode for windows xp.

Im on Firefox now.