Sony Vegas Pro 10 Won’t Install or Launch After Update – The Solution

As readers familiar with this blog may know by now, I have been using Sony / Sonic Foundry products since their version 1 releases. I have always extolled the virtues of Vegas – their NLE/multitrack but sometimes there are hiccups along the way. I heard from several people (and this has been widely echoed across the web) that the latest updates to version 10 (namely build b and c) are creating mysterious problems that fail to launch the software or even uninstall/reinstall it.

Well I tested out some solutions and finally found one that works. It ain’t pretty. But it works and so I had to share it, with an easy to find title, so as to spare my peers from lots of hair-pulling and wasted valuable time.

Special thanks to Mark Prebonich who posted this on the Creative Cow forums

Clean Uninstall and Reinstall Instructions for Windows 7 users (32 Bit Editions)

Before doing a Clean Reinstall, it is important to do the following:

•All audio and video effects chains and presets will be erased, so if you need to make a back up of your presets please download our Preset Manager program. For more information about backing up presets: Backup and Restore Audio Presets | Backup and Restore Video Presets

•Safely disconnect any external USB or Firewire devices like hard-drives or dongles.

•Temporarily turn off ALL anti-virus programs, as well as disabling any Registry Blockers, Spy Ware, Firewalls, etc. These applications have been known to interfere with software installation and registration.

Start the process of removing programs go to Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features (in Windows XP, open Add or Remove Programs) – find and remove your Sony Creative Software applications (ACID, Sound Forge, Vegas, DVD Architect, Cinescore, CD Architect or Media Manager, as well as any other Sony Media Software or Sony Creative Software programs).

Also, remove the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (SONY_MEDIAMGR), any and all Microsoft .NET Framework versions, and the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable software if it is listed.

Once un-installed, delete the following folders:

•C:\Program Files\Sony\
(Do not delete this entire folder if you have other Sony applications installed such as Sonic Stage, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, etc. If that is the case then only delete the folder for the Sony Media Software application you are using as well as the Shared Plug-Ins folder.)

•C:\Program Files\Sony Setup
WARNING: The next step will require you to delete Windows Registry Keys. The Registry is a very sensitive area to work in. If you are not comfortable with advanced configuration and system changes, ask an administrator to help you with this. (Related Topics: How to back up and restore the registry in Windows: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/en-us)

Next, open the Registry Editor. Select Start and type REGEDIT in the ‘Start Search’ box. (For Windows XP users, go to Start > Run … type REGEDIT and press ‘OK’)

In the Registry Editor, locate and delete the following registry entries:
(Depending on which versions you have installed you may see one or more of these entries. If you do not see all of these, that is normal. Delete those which you do find.)

If you locate a folder labelled “Sonic” please DO NOT confuse this with Sonic Foundry. Leave it alone.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sonic Foundry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sony Media Software
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sony Creative Software

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic Foundry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Media Software
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Creative Software

Close the Registry Editor.

After removing all of the previous items, you may download and re-install from this link -

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/updates

When finished with all reinstallation, please restart your computer. When your computer has restarted, you will have a complete clean installation.