Dear Sun Microsystems

If you have a known installer problem with the latest versions of Java, for which you claim that “the exact reason for this error is not known at this time”, and it takes me less than an hour to work out how to fix it, then you’re not trying hard enough.

The only way you could make your inadequacies more apparent is if neither of the workarounds you suggested actually worked. Oops, that’s right – they don’t.

If you really expect people to take you at all seriously when you talk about your upcoming policy papers, you need to sort this basic stuff out. These are schoolboy errors, and it’s ridiculous that you can’t figure them out for yourself.

Love and kisses,
AngryTechnician

P.S. …

The way I fixed it was:

1. Stop the jqs.exe process via Task Manager (you know, the one that the previous version’s uninstaller should have removed).
2. Delete the entire C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin folder.
3. Delete the following Registry key to convince Windows Installer that Java really isn’t installed correctly (which it isn’t): HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\4EA42A62D9304AC4784BF238120611FF
4. Run the install program again.