I ran some Norton utilities (disk doc., Win doc., Cleanup) + Windows defrag
this morning. I've since tried to install some landscape design software,
using its CD, and as soon as its Setup.exe file is picked, Install Shield for
a very old game I've had on my HD for a year appears, and says it's going to
uninstall that game, and asks if I want to continue. I have installed a
number of programs via CD + Install Shield w/out problems, prior to today,
since that game was originally installed. So, it appears my Installer now
has a pointer set incorrectly, for some reason. I've tried the following to
kickstart it:

Reboot
Uninstalled a different program (using Add/Remove)
Manually installed the landscape program via its own Install program - this
got the desired software installed correctly and completely.

After finishing the manual installation of the landscape program, I
reinserted its CD and said I wanted to install it, and again, Install Shield
for the old game popped up and said it was going to uninstall the game...
etc. I'm assuming that the installer *still* has the pointer wrong (and will
continue to have it wrong in the future), and it has nothing to do with this
landscape software or its installation process.

Would Windows Installer Cleanup utility (
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;290301 ) help me at
all? I can't quite tell from the description.

If not, is there something I can do to fix this? Is "Windows Installer" the
same thing as "Install Shield (Wizard)"?

Is it possible that all of my utilities work this morning, including the
Defrag, messed up a pointer in Install Shield? I ran Norton Cleanup after
the Defrag, and it found some problems in temp files, none of which seemed to
have anything to do with an installer. There were no problems with shortcuts
after the Defrag, and the 2 shortcut problems found in Win Doctor had nothing
to do with the game or the installer.

?? help?