Symptoms
When trying to update, setup displays a message:
The older version of Tick Data Suite cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group.
Furthermore, if you go to Control Panel -> Programs, select Tick Data Suite and click the Uninstall button, nothing happens.
Cause
This is generally caused by so-called optimization software (such as CCleaner or Norton) which deletes some files required for uninstalling the Tick Data Suite.
Automatic resolution
A batch script that will automagically fix this problem for you is available. Simply download the remove-tds2.bat script attached to this article, right click it and select Run as administrator. Follow the on-screen prompts and if everything succeeds, run the latest Tick Data Suite installer once more.
Very important: you must exit Tick Data Manager and close all MT4 terminals before running this script.
Note: running the script will not delete any tick data that you may have downloaded to your disk.
If the script fails, some users reported success with the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. However, Microsoft no longer supports the utility (even though it may still be found) and instead offers the solution Fix problems that block programs from being installed or removed which may also be of assistance.
Manual resolution
If you wish to perform the repair manually, please follow the steps below. Note that no downloaded tick data will be harmed in the process.
1. Open Control Panel
2. Open the Programs applet (or Add/Remove Programs)
3. Find Tick Data Suite and write down the version number.
4. Open regedit
5. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
6. Manually go through all keys with a GUID as their name (e.g. {19A14FD7-8045-4E0D-996E-EE793E3E62A4}) until you find one that contains Tick Data Suite in its DisplayName value. Write down the GUID of the entry.
7. Head to the Tick Data Suite download archive and download the installer for your version (the one you wrote down in step #3).
8. Open a command prompt.
9. To extract the files, type:
cd /path/to/downloaded/installer mkdir "%TEMP%\tdstmp\" tds2-setup-v[VERSION].exe /extract:"%TEMP%\tdstmp\"
Make sure you replace the [VERSION] in the .exe name above with the one obtained in step #3. Note that the .exe might have -beta in its name if it's a beta version; essentially you have to type the full name of the installer .exe there.
10. To perform a forced reinstallation, type:
MsiExec.exe /I "%TEMP%\tdstmp\tds.msi" REINSTALLMODE=voums REINSTALL=ALL
Note that you must replace tds.msi above with tds64.msi or tds.x64.msi (whichever you have in the tdstmp folder) if you're using a 64-bit OS.
Follow the on-screen prompts to proceed with the reinstallation.
11. To uninstall, type:
msiexec.exe /x [GUID]
Where [GUID] is the GUID obtained in step #6. Follow the on-screen prompts to proceed with the uninstallation.
12. Delete the extracted files and the old installer:
rd /s /q "%TEMP%\tdstmp\" del tds2-setup-v[VERSION].exe
As above, change [VERSION] to the version from step #3.
13. You're done. At this point you can run the installer of the new Tick Data Suite version.