Hi everyone, I'm in dire need of some technical assistance.

This evening I tried installing Morrowind from disc. It all went okay at first, when I started and exited the game it changed compatibility automatically I think, although I do not know to what.

I just wanted to test it, so after I had played a few minutes I tried uninstalling it. I uninstalled the construction kit first, no problems. But then I tried uninstalling the game itself (there is a neutral white/blue icon in the control panel and a "setup"-installation icon in the folder that is used to uninstall), but then a message appeared saying "an installation support file could not be installed … catastrophic error".

I tried restarting my PC, it took a long time, and a minute I feared it would not load desktop again, but thankfully it did. But now Google Chrome won't start, Morrowind won't uninstall and I don't know what to do.

Any help would be most welcome. Thanks. I'm using Windows 10.

- Bearprint

Not an answer but I maybe able to point you in the right direction. When I had a similar message some time ago, I was told it was an Instalshield problem and was give a work around. I no longer have it. But that may point you to a web site that will give you the answer.

Please be more specific: Does "disk" mean hard disk (not CD)? Are you using the GOG installation file (with or without Galaxy?)? And you didn't install anthing else (mods, unofficial patches, ...)? Has Morrowind been installed on this PC before?
For now I assume that you are talking about the GOG non-Galaxy installation of Morrowind, and that you didn't install anything else. And you were not deleting any files and/or folders manually before attempting the standard de-installation procedure.
If I understand you correctly, you launched Morrowind using the icon created by the GOG installation on your desktop, and you either didn't use the Data function of the launch menu or didn't change anything there. Then you launched a new game without changing any options (didn't you?), were taken to the ship, which had arrived in Seyda Neen (the starting village), and went through the release (character definition) process in Seyda Neen. At some (which?) point you decided to exit the game and did this using the standard exit function (not by, for example, using the task manager), which worked.
Then you tried to un-install Morrowind using the control panel functions (which I'm not familiar with - I'm un-installing games differently). CS went fine, the de-installation of the game itself went wrong (with the message you quoted).
If this is a correct summary of what you did and what happened, it looks like something went wrong with the installation or de-installation (I have no idea what this might have been), and that your registry is damaged and / or that there are corrupted files.
If you are lucky (unlikely, in my mind, but perhaps worth a try), you might be able to install Morrowind again successfully. Another solution might be to delete everything associated with Morrowind from your PC and then repeat the installation procedure. If I remember correctly, this would be the game folder plus the associated registry entries. The latter is only advisable, if you are familiar with editing your registry - there is a certain risk that you damage the registry to a degree that it becomes totally unusable, which would mean that your PC becomes unusable, too.
These techniques may or may not work, solve or not solve your issue - sorry, I can't present a solution which is guaranteed to address your problem and to fix it. To be honest, I personally don't think this is going to work, as the error message doesn't hint at a Morrowind-specific problem, but I wanted to mention it nonetheless.

I had a quick look at the internet and found this general quote:
"Catastrophic Failure is caused by missing system files or broken system registry structures. This is a critical sign of an unstable system that is typically caused by improper maintenance of the computer."
In addition, I found a link suggesting a solution:
https://flexeracommunity.force.com/customer/articles/en_US/ERRDOC/Q110609.
Again, I can't guarantee that it addresses your problem, nor that it fixes it.

Finally, that Chrome doesn't work sounds odd to me. I see no relationship between Morrowind (including its installation) and Chrome. Either the two things are unrelated, or your problem might be bigger than a (relatively) simple (de-) installation issue. In this case, it might be better to get professional help (to perform a general computer health check).

If it were me (and I am putting this way because it may make things worse, but I would risk it), I would load a different disc/program requiring installshield to see if having another program completing the process would resolve the instability. (Install. try it; then uninstall the new program, try it.)

Thanks for the clarifications - the picture is a lot clearer now (unfortunately this doesn't mean that I can offer a solution :-(). You mention a few observations I have never made myself (despite installing and un-installing Morrowind and the CS many times on several PC's and OS's, including the 4 CD GoTY version). I've never seen Morrowind not starting in fullscreen (nor switching between windowed and fullscreen automatically), nor a message concerning compatibility issues, nor a catastrophic failure message.

Are the installation CD's official ones? If not, there is some probability that these are the problem source. In this case I would throw them away, and check my PC very carefully (or let a professional do it).
If the CD's are official, then I think you can safely assume that the installation and de-installation works in general, also the de-installation of the CS alone (I have never tried the latter myself though).
This leaves either a faulty CD, or a faulty installation, either due to a software issue, or due to an error during the installation process.

The Morrowind side is relatively easy to check: Like I said yesterday, delete the Morrowind folder and all registry entries associated with Morrowind, and try the installation again. Editing the registry is not difficult per se (if you understand how it's structured), but if you make certain mistakes, you may end up with an unusable PC. What I've done in the past is to search it for "Morrowind", and then delete all keys containing "Morrowind" (if you don't know what a "registry key" is, I wouldn't try to edit the registry - perhaps you know someone who can help you).

Unfortunately, that you have received a "catastrophic error" message points in a different direction: That the issue has nothing to do with Morrowind at all. Try macAilpin's advice to install (and de-install) one (or several) other programs using an automated installation procedure. If InstallShield is damaged, then it's likely that other installations are damaged, too, or impossible at all.

If all this fails and doesn't give you new information, it might be a good idea to take the PC to a professional. In my (German) town, I could get it for about 50 Euro. After the check you would at least know where you are with your PC.

A final word: Don't give up on Morrowind! Either your PC needs fixing, or something has gone wrong when you installed Morrowind. In both cases, the game itself is not the problem cause. The GOG version installs fine on a clean Win10 PC. So make sure your PC is ok, get the GOG version, install Morrowind, and enjoy the game.

Official CDs, yes. I dont want to mess with deleting files manually unless it is the final solution before taking the PC to a professional.

I tried installing/uninstalling another program. Didnt work.

Could I maybe use system restore? I did that some years ago with another problem. Kinda like turning back time a week or two before the installation?

This confirms that there is nothing wrong with Morrowind or with the CD's.
A restore is probably possible, but will not necessarily solve your problem. Better consult with someone who is more familiar with system restores than I before you do anything.
Good luck!

Something interesting happened.

I made a system restore and changed the PC back to a day before the installation. When I opened desktop, the morrowind .exe was gone ;)

Then I opened up my Games-folder. Now, when I installed, I didn't install automatically to the suggested path which was something like C/Programs86/Bethesdasoftworks. Instead, I heard from a guy on GOG that you should always install in C/Games or something like that. To make mods work better.

I have Arcanum and Grim Dawn in there in there separate folders. But in Morrowinds case, there was a CS-folder, a Morrowind Uninstall-folder, but no specific Morrowind Main-folder. The files were just scattered there.

I think the system restore erased some of them, but these are the ones remaining:

00000000.016
00000000.256
bethesda (text)
ProgramFlow (text)
readme (text)
Warnings (text)

Then there is a folder called MWUninstall. Originally there was an uninstall-exe and another file, but that is gone now. Remaining:

date1 (cab-file)
date1.hdr
layout.bin
setup.inx

And a data files-folder with the following:

Fonts-folder
Music-folder
Sound-folder
Splash-folder (all folders having many files)
Morrowind.bsa
Morrowind.esm

So... should I delete these files manually? Will the PC still think Morrowind is installed if I do? If so, will I still be able to buy the GOG-version?

Well, you can always buy from GOG :-) (bad joke - sorry).
Seriously:
- Never install to C:\Programs (x86)\ (or whatever this folder is called on your PC), if you want to do something manually there (like installing mods, editing files, etc), simply because Windows likes to retain full control over this folder, and won't let you do something it considers a risk.
- Most files on your list are standard Morrowind files, leftovers from your attempts to install and un-install Morrowind, and you can't do any harm by deleting them.
The first two files (.016 and .256) could be fragments from corrupted files. Experts might be able to recover some data from them, but in your case I think they are irrelevant.
The warnings.txt file might be interesting, as it may contain information created during the installation process (I'm not sure). Perhaps you can read it (with Notepad, Word, Open Office, ...) before you delete it?
- If you are certain that the reset point lies before you installed Morrowind, you should be able to start a new attempt at installing Morrowind, using your CD version, the GOG version, or whatever. Simply make sure you install it to a new folder underneath C:\Games (or another folder which isn't C:\Programs (x86) or similar).
- Before you do this, I recommend to perform two sanity checks: One is to check the registry for leftovers of Morrowind. The other is to try installing something else, which hasn't worked before. If there are no leftovers in the registry and the other installation works, the installation of Morrowind is likely to work, too. Otherwise, the PC is still corrupted.
- For browsing the registry, enter "regedit" (without quotes) in the search box on the left side of the task bar at the bottom of your screen, and press ENTER. This opens the registry. It's in edit mode, so make sure you don't change anything. Search for Morrowind (using the F3 key). It may take a while before regedit returns any results, so be patient. If it doesn't find any occurrences of Morrowind, exit the registry. If you are asked to confirm changes, don't do it. If it finds Morrowind entries, exit the registry in the same way. In the second case, a new installation of Morrowind may or may not work (on the other hand, trying won't make things worse than they are).

Are any of the programs that claim they can clean-up junk files including Registry any good? If so, that may be the way to go. (Never used one)

I don't know. These programs analyse the registry and present a list of registry entries they think can be deleted. If you trust the program and let it proceed, then a lot of registry garbage is gone. I myself have never managed to trust such a program enough to let it proceed, but went through the list trying to understand what the individual entries mean. Unchecking the entries I didnt understand proved to be too time-consuming for me, and I cancelled the program.
So all I can say is that i had a look at RegCleaner, PCCleander and a few others, but never really used any of them.

In your case, the biggest risk in my eyes is not so much the registry but the installation software. I'd probably simply go ahead installing Morrowind again (from the installation CD) and see what happens. In the worst case, you can always reset your PC again. Of course, the decision is yours - and you have to live with the consequences.

Perhaps there are others reading these posts who have more experience with this kind of problem than I?

This is for Bearprint. I had a similar problem that Bearprint had and some one with your skill set walked me through a solution (had something to do with Installshield kernel running twice). But I can't find the work around I was sent as it was sometime ago. Don't know if it would work anyway. The only time I fooled around with a Registry was when I ended up buying a new computer. So I tend to leave it alone.

We're nearing the finish line.

I searched for Morrowind in the registry. It didn't find anything. Then I looked at the warnings-file:

Texture "Textures\_land_default.tga" count 3.
Texture "Textures\menu_thick_border_bottom_right_corner.dds" count 2.

It doesn't look like this is particularly worrying. I also ran a clean-up program, but it didn't get the remaining Morrowind-files. I don't want to ever touch the Morrowind-CDs again, sorry.

Should I just delete the Morrowind-files in the Game-folder and be happy?

This looks good - as far as Morrowind is concerned at least. You can safely delete all files and folders you listed in an earlier post, and then your PC is ready for a new installation of Morrowind, again as far as Morrowind is concerned.
A question: Are you sure that the installation completed successfully? A crash during the installation might cause all sorts of problems.

I keep saying "as far as Morrowind is concerned" because there is still the risk that your system or InstallShield are damaged. You said that you were not able to install other games before the reset. Have you tried again meanwhile?
If other installations work, the installation of Morrowind should work, too (fingers crossed).

I'm not sure that there is anything wrong with your installation CD's. The warnings are created when you launch Morrowind (not when you install it). I have them myself, your 2 messages plus a third one:
Texture "Textures\Tx_wood_wethered.dds" count 3".
Nothing to worry about.
You may check your CD's using the free tool CDCheck.

Should you have a look at Morrowind again, a small piece of advice from someone who knows the game pretty well: One of the first questions of new players is typically: Which mods should I use? This GOG forum contains a lot of information concerning this question, the first thread "Morrowind Essentials ..." is a good start.
If you ask me: Get familiar with Morrowind without any mods. Explore Seyda Neen (the starting town) and its surroundings, and then make up your mind whether or not you want to use any mods and, if yes, what kind of mods (graphical, story, tweaks, etc.). Bear in mind that some of them create problems, are not easy to install and/or use.
There are two or three mods / unofficial patches (download links in "Morrowind Essentials") which I consider safe and fairly essential:
- The Morrowind Code Patch fixes a lot of bugs (you're unlikely to notice them during your first couple of hours, but why not fix them before they hurt),
- Tribunal Delayed saves you the trouble to be attacked by assassins whenever you sleep. These assassins belong to Tribunal, are totally unrealted with the base game. Of course, if you defeat them (it's difficult but possible) they drop nice weapons and armour which you can use or sell, but they damage the balance of the base game as well.
You could also deactivate Tribunal until you're ready to play it, but then you would lose all other enhancements Tribunal offers, namely a very good journal. There is also another in-game method to stop the assassins appearing, but I won't explain it in detail here. At any rate, you can always deactivate Tribunal Delayed and let the assassins come to you.
- Some other people would also consider the Solstheim Rumour Fix essential, but in my mind, it becomes important only when you want to start playing the Bloodmoon expansion.