Designer 6i Release 2 makes Oracle 8.1.7 installation impossible!!!

Question

Hi,
Designer 6i Release 2 makes Oracle 8.1.7 installation impossibleon Windows 2000 Server!!!
After I uninstalled Designer 6i Rel2 through the Oracle Installer and then manually deleted all the left directories and Oracle registry entries I found HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ALL_HOMES\ID0\"\Registry Backup" entries that are not removable! Designer documentation says it's OK and that it won't do any harm. But it does! I have absolutely "Oracle free" machine, and why I try install Oracle 8.1.7, Oracle Installer pops up and after I click on "install products" closes and nothing happens.
Please, help me:
1) delete these registry entries;
2) maybe there are some dlls I need to delete in order to make Oracle 8.1.7 work.
P.S. I have to mention that Oracle Forms developer 6i Rel 2 was installed on top of the Designer in the same home (only Client Forms and Reports). But I cleaned up everything as described erlier.
I think, it is critical not only for me to solve this problem ASAP.
Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello guys
I had this problems for weeks, I could not reinstall Oracle 8.1.7 on Windows 2000 Advanced Server with the Universal Installer, it was all the time frozing after the splash screen. In my registry, I found the unremovable oracle entries (3) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ALL_HOMES\ID0\"\Registry Backup". Here is what I did to clean (sort of) the registry. By the way, reinstalling Win2K was out of the question.
I download Resplendence Registar 2.03 from http://www.resplendence.com. I made a binary backup of my registry using RR. Then I edit the backup with an hex editor (I use textpad from http://www.textpad.com). I search for the oracle entries (ORACLE in uppercase), found two. I replace them with ZZZZZZ. I saved the file and restored the registry with RR. Now, I have a ZZZZZZ unremovable entry, but it does not interfere with the Oracle Universal Installer. I was then able to reinstall Oracle 8.1.7 and Designer6i.
Now, I have a new problem. I have two oracle home
OEE with Oracle8i EE 8.1.7
ORANT with Oracle Designer6i
When I try to connect to my remote database Oracle8i EE 8.1.6 on Linux with SQL*Plus 8.1.7 everything is OK. But when I try to connect using SQL*Plus 8.0.6 that comes with Designer6i I get the error ORA-12571: TNS:packet writer failure. The config files tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora are the same on both oracle homes. If you have any clues, please let me known, I'm out of them.
PS After 12 years working with Oracle products, this is my worst year. The product development it totally out of control. The products are huge, buggy, incomplete and incompatible. I hope we will survive this storm :o)