[yrthwyndandfyre]

OK, kids, the short and sweet. Inasmuch as they busted the game, they busted the uninstall, so I did the ritual thing: I gutted it like a fish.

That means that I did the following things, in sequence:
1) Manually remove all of the VTMB files in person. Everything below D:\Program Files\Activision
2) Try to re-install (it won't work - it still thinks you have it).
3) Prowl the registry and dike out all references to VTMB.
4) Try to re-install (it won't work - it still thinks you have it).
5) Clean my registry, check my disk drives for integrity, and defrag them.
6) Try to re-install (it won't work - it still thinks you have it).
7) Prowl the file-system looking for where that last lurking link is.
8) Find it at (on my system) C:\Windows\VTMB.ini
9) Delete that file.
10) Re-install the game from scratch.
11) Install the 1.2 patch
12) Re-register (it remembers you).
13) Copy back my most recently saved game which I had previously saved to a different folder.
14) Play.

I think you can safely skip steps 2 through 7, as I don't believe they are relevant. The integrity check of the Registry and disk drive, and the defrag can't possibly hurt on an install of this size, though, so I think step 5 is still worthwhile. Steps 8 and 9 are critical, because without them, you can't re-install.

Having done all of that, for reasons that surpass understanding, VTMB is suddenly being VERY POLITE to me. I have yet to reach the Waterwheel room to see if that works, but I will report on that the second I get there. Let me just say this. This game has NEVER played this smoothly. Ever. I'm playing like I have Celerity, but I don't, which is another way of saying I've been playing with one hand tied behind my back, and it's not tied anymore.

I will start to devote my time to a program that will do what I just did by hand - uninstall VTMB by Brute Force. When I have it ready and tested, I'll release it on this forum. Hopefully, that will solve almost all of the more difficult problems for everybody.