Kindof off topic

Discussion:

Kindof off topic

(too old to reply)

rwwink

2017-05-25 16:15:37 UTC

I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade to
W10. He also runs Norton's Antivirus. A couple of days ago, Norton's
did some sort of an erase and removed several of the executable files
from his HDD.
One of the programs reinstalled and all is will with it. The second
one will not install because it thinks that it's installed.
Could someone point me to a registry cleaner, or some other way to
remove the references to said program so that we can reinstall the
program? OR if modifying the registry is a bad idea, provide another
way to force the install. TIA.
R. Wink

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

Paul

2017-05-25 16:36:33 UTC

Permalink

Post by rwwink
I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade to
W10. He also runs Norton's Antivirus. A couple of days ago, Norton's
did some sort of an erase and removed several of the executable files
from his HDD.
One of the programs reinstalled and all is will with it. The second
one will not install because it thinks that it's installed.
Could someone point me to a registry cleaner, or some other way to
remove the references to said program so that we can reinstall the
program? OR if modifying the registry is a bad idea, provide another
way to force the install. TIA.
R. Wink

If you go to Control : Programs and Features, is the item
still listed there ? If you click on the item, does it have

Repair
Uninstall

as options, or only

Uninstall

When programs are installed on your computer, there is an
MSI cache folder. And sometimes, that's what the "Uninstall"
is accessing. Similarly, the MSI can support "repair", which
is an installation over top. The program developer decides
how those work, or if they will be present. Nothing says
a program has to be uninstallable - you can have poorly
made installers that just leave stuff.

In some cases, doing the "Uninstall" from there, will delete
(most) of the files. It probably doesn't hurt, if an empty folder
<ProgramName> still exists, as a reinstall can still write into
that. And the uninstall file is likely still present on the
machine, and if it did have registry removal code, it would
still be able to clean up.

And the single most important aspect of using the
Programs and Features panel, is the OS will think there
is no program by that name installed, after you run "Uninstall".

One important thing before any "experiment", is your backup.
Does the user have a backup of C: ? If one of your experiments
runs amok, what's your recovery plan ? Make a backup first,
storing the output on some external drive. So if you do decide
to go crazy with some sort of registry cleaner, you have
a recovery plan for later.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Right now, I'm doing an experiment on Win10. And I have my
image of C: all ready to go, to restore it :-) After the
smoke clears.

Paul

J. P. Gilliver (John)

2017-05-25 19:20:13 UTC

Permalink

[]

Post by Paul

Post by rwwink
Could someone point me to a registry cleaner, or some other way to
remove the references to said program so that we can reinstall the
program? OR if modifying the registry is a bad idea, provide another
way to force the install. TIA.
R. Wink

If you go to Control : Programs and Features, is the item
still listed there ? If you click on the item, does it have

[]

Post by Paul
And the single most important aspect of using the
Programs and Features panel, is the OS will think there
is no program by that name installed, after you run "Uninstall".
One important thing before any "experiment", is your backup.
Does the user have a backup of C: ? If one of your experiments
runs amok, what's your recovery plan ? Make a backup first,
storing the output on some external drive. So if you do decide
to go crazy with some sort of registry cleaner, you have
a recovery plan for later.

[]
+1 on the image of C: [it helps if you keep everything but software off
C:, as it makes it smaller, easier to backup, and thus you'll make the
images more often (-:].

I think if you use Revo, even the free version, it lets you run the
prog.'s own uninstaller, so the OS should indeed think that s/w has been
uninstalled. (I think Revo "watches" the uninstaller, to give it hints
where to look more thoroughly than the prog.'s own uninstaller can.)

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"The wish of the lazy to allow unsupervised access [to the internet] to their
children should not reduce all adults browsing to the level of suitability for a
five-year-old." Yaman Akdeniz, quoted in Inter//face (The Times, 1999-2-10): p12

s|b

2017-05-25 17:54:44 UTC

Permalink

Post by rwwink
I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade to
W10.

"forced" ?

--
s|b

Auric__

2017-05-25 18:08:46 UTC

Permalink

Post by s|b

Post by rwwink
I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade to
W10.

"forced" ?

I would guess probably GWX. Not so much "forced" as "didn't realize it was
happening" or "didn't know how to prevent it."

--
Always glad to lend a helping finger of saccharine down your throat.

Mark Lloyd

2017-05-25 18:19:14 UTC

Permalink

Post by Auric__

Post by s|b

Post by rwwink
I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade to
W10.

"forced" ?

I would guess probably GWX. Not so much "forced" as "didn't realize it was
happening" or "didn't know how to prevent it."

I do know someone who went to be with Win 7, and woke up to fine Win 10
on that PC. Maybe this is "forced" (no choice given). I have Win 7 and
installed "GWX Control panel". She ignored it when I told her about it.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"A computer without Microsoft Windows is like chocolate cake without the
mustard."

VanguardLH

2017-05-25 22:18:46 UTC

Permalink

Post by Auric__

Post by s|b

Post by rwwink
I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade to
W10.

"forced" ?

I would guess probably GWX. Not so much "forced" as "didn't realize it was
happening" or "didn't know how to prevent it."

More like the user goes clicking on dialog buttons without first reading
them or comprehending what they are telling the user. That's also how
some users end up with Google Chrome: they don't read the installer
screens where Chrome was bundled or they click on any dialog shown in
their web browser to do an install of Chrome.

GWX Control Panel Installation

Upgrade Now and Upgrade Later means the user is still choosing to do the
upgrade. You kill the process (and get rid of GWX) or, as the video
mentions, you use the X window close button to exit the app. Lots of
users think they have to click on one of those two button. Well,
clicking on Upgrade Later still means the upgrade will happen. The
window may change what it presents so the user memorizing the button
positions and functions might click on one of them. This behavior is
why GWX is identified as malware by the user community but anti-virus
vendors refused to identify it as malware (many are Microsoft Partners).

Of course, only those users that accept every update shoved at them by
Microsoft are going to get stuck with GWX. If the user reviews EACH
update and investigates what it does, they don't end up with GWX.
Discussions about eliminating GWX has been around a long time, and so
have the utilities to thwart it, like GWX Control Panel (which I used
for awhile until Microsoft stopped pushing the app as an update).

This same user that somehow accidentally got moved to Windows 10 is
likely also a user that does not schedule backups to ensure they can
restore their computer back to a prior state. So they are stuck with
using the uninstall of Windows 10 - but that is available only for 30
days after which Windows 10 will delete the repository for where the
prior Windows version was stored.

Uninstall Windows 10 and Downgrade to Windows 7

However, when they are back on Windows 7, and because they don't review
updates but instead swallow everything Microsoft pushes at them and may
even have WU configured for automatic updating, they possibly could end
up screwed over again. Microsoft stopped pushing GWX so the lazy user
might be safe once reverted back to Windows 7.

AIOEUser

2017-05-25 19:34:06 UTC

Permalink

Free versions of all of these are available.

Reg Cleaners

Glary Utilities

CCleaner

I found that both are needed for complete cleaning.
Used both dozens of times to clean the reg.
Both offer reg backup before cleaning the reg.

Uninstaller
Revo Uninstaller

All of these will nag from time to time or daily for an upgrade to a
paid version but I just click and IGNORE.

J. P. Gilliver (John)

2017-05-25 20:34:00 UTC

Permalink

Post by AIOEUser
Free versions of all of these are available.
Reg Cleaners
Glary Utilities
CCleaner
I found that both are needed for complete cleaning.
Used both dozens of times to clean the reg.
Both offer reg backup before cleaning the reg.

Do they also have a means to make an emergency boot disc, so you can get
to a point where you can restore the reg backup if they do a "clean"
that stops Windows booting?

Post by AIOEUser
Uninstaller
Revo Uninstaller
All of these will nag from time to time or daily for an upgrade to a
paid version but I just click and IGNORE.

Revo _is_ good. (I can just never remember how to make is run when there
_isn't_ an entry in add/remove [or whatever that's called this week].)

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Bread is lovely, don't get me wrong. But it's not cake. Or it's rubbish cake.
I always thought that bread needed more sugar and some icing. - Sarah Millican
(Radio Times 11-17 May 2013)

Good Guy

2017-05-25 20:26:56 UTC

Permalink

Post by rwwink
I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade

Your friend must be an idiot; Microsoft never points a gun towards
anybody's head to force using Windows 10;

--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

J.O. Aho

2017-05-25 21:25:36 UTC

Permalink

Post by Good Guy

Post by rwwink
I have a friend that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade

Your friend must be an idiot; Microsoft never points a gun towards
anybody's head to force using Windows 10;

There been updates which has been forcing to upgrade from ms-win-8 to
ms-win-10, but the update has been removed as the reaction was quite
negative. Had things been open source, this kind of thing would not have
happen, people would have forked the project a long time ago and started
to fix the badly written code.

VanguardLH

2017-05-25 22:06:54 UTC

Permalink

I have a friend ...

Many times this means themself. What did you do?

... that was running W7 and M$ forced him to upgrade to
W10. He also runs Norton's Antivirus. A couple of days ago, Norton's
did some sort of an erase and removed several of the executable files
from his HDD.
One of the programs reinstalled and all is will with it. The second
one will not install because it thinks that it's installed.
Could someone point me to a registry cleaner, or some other way to
remove the references to said program so that we can reinstall the
program? OR if modifying the registry is a bad idea, provide another
way to force the install. TIA.
R. Wink

See my reply to sb on how to revert back to Windows 7. If the user
intends to stay with Windows 10, why aren't you asking there?

If the program added a entry into the crypto hive in the registry, the
user cannot delete it. User-mode access, like with regedit.exe, will
not access to the crypto hive. Otherwise, just use regedit.exe to
search on the program's name or vendor name to find the registry entries
for the program. Be careful what you delete. If it is a well-known
program, other programs might know about it and have entries under them
(e.g., some AVs will track installs). Make sure that you don't bother
with entries under HKLM/System/ControlSetxxx (where xxx is a number)
unless you know which one is the current subtree. Just edit under
HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet which is a pseudo-tree redirected from
whichever of the other two is the current one.

Some programs employ other-party software to control licensing. You
won't find those keys by searching on the product or vendor name. I've
seen that often used with trialware so the product cannot be reinstalled
after the trial expires. Registry cleaners rarely get rid of those
related registry entries. Only those that record what changes were made
during an installation will know what all to remove; however, since they
record all registry changes, any made by other processes running
concurrently with the installation will have their entries recorded,
too. So you have to be careful when using the recorded installation log
that you remove or ignore entries that were not made by the installer.
Such logging will log all changes. They take a snapshot before and
after the installation, so any and all registry changes are recorded in
their log. I don't know of any that installs a driver to monitor
changes made only by a specific process.

If this is a non-pirated program, is there a reason the user cannot call
the program's owner to ask how to get the new install to work?

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
hxxp:// www. avg. c*m

Please configure your anti-virus program to stop spammifying your posts
with their childish fake signature. Childish because, oh yeah, like
anyone is going to believe the post is clean just because the poster
said so, uh huh. It's a fake signature because they don't want
Usenetizens that strip out or hide signatures to miss their
oh-so-valuable spam. Since you let them spammify your posts, your posts
are spam.

Go into Avast and configure it to NOT append its spam fake signature
onto your messages. Of course, their entire e-mail/news scan module is
superfluous, anyway, so just remove that component. It uses the same
detection as the on-access (real-time) scanner so you get no additional
coverage.

Avast acquired AVG and why both products will, by default, append their
spam fake signature.

rwwink

2017-05-26 00:48:56 UTC

Permalink

To expand what happened...inexperienced user, very little computer
experience. No backups. M$ pushed W10 and he didn't know the
difference.
The program is not show in the control panel so there is "NO"
uninstall, repair or reinstall options. All the files, except for the
executable are on the drive. The program apparently detects something
in the registry and will not let it be installed, even after removal
the files and directory.
R Wink

Good Guy

2017-05-26 01:06:42 UTC

Permalink

Post by rwwink
To expand what happened...inexperienced user, very little computer
experience.

You mean like you? Please clarify.

Post by rwwink
No backups. M$ pushed W10 and he didn't know the
difference.
The program is not show in the control panel so there is "NO"
uninstall, repair or reinstall options. All the files, except for the
executable are on the drive.

Just cut the crap and take the machine to a repair shop and they will
fix it for you. Don't waste your time because you won't understand a
thing what "experts" here will tell you to do.

--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

VanguardLH

2017-05-26 02:48:36 UTC

Permalink

Post by rwwink
To expand what happened...inexperienced user, very little computer
experience. No backups. M$ pushed W10 and he didn't know the
difference.
The program is not show in the control panel so there is "NO"
uninstall, repair or reinstall options.

Although mentioned in another article, here's another one:
https://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/

If this friend allowed the free upgrade, the option to uninstall
disappeared long ago:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/rollback-windows-10-after-30-days

Apparently your friend installed Windows 10 and more than 30 days
elapsed without your friend electing to uninstall the upgrade. The
giveaway ended way back on 20-July-2016. The user was hardly "forced"
to move to Windows 10 since he kept it this long. So this friend
upgraded to Windows 10, kept it for almost a year now, and would've had
the problem with the uninstallable program ever since.

Post by rwwink
All the files, except for the executable are on the drive. The
program apparently detects something in the registry and will not let
it be installed, even after removal the files and directory.

- Is it a secret program? Is it vertical market software so no one here
would know about it? If secret or vertical market, it won't be in
Revo Uninstaller's database, and your friend didn't buy the payware
version to have it monitor the program's installation back on Windows
7 (to figure out what registry entries it added or changed).
- Does the program actually support Windows 10?
- What is the bitwidth of the secret program? What is the bitwidth of
Windows 10? 32-bit Windows support 16- and 32-bit programs. 64-bit
Windows supports 32- and 64-bit programs.
- Has your friend called the software owner to inquire on how to
reinstall under Windows 10?

J. P. Gilliver (John)

2017-05-26 06:33:39 UTC

Permalink

Post by VanguardLH

[]

Post by VanguardLH

[]

Post by VanguardLH
- Has your friend called the software owner to inquire on how to
reinstall under Windows 10?

Earlier in this thread, I'm pretty sure the OP said at least who the
manufacturer of these prog.s was (was it Norton?), at the same time
saying one of them had reinstalled/upgraded/whatever and was working
fine, and another is refusing to (re)install because it thinks it's
partly there already.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of
them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for
science intact. - Carl Sagan (interview w. Psychology Today published '96-1-1)

VanguardLH

2017-05-26 18:47:31 UTC

Permalink

Post by J. P. Gilliver (John)

Post by VanguardLH

[]

Post by VanguardLH

[]

Post by VanguardLH
- Has your friend called the software owner to inquire on how to
reinstall under Windows 10?

The OP said Norton AntiVirus erased some files so he or his friend had
to [try to] reinstall some unidentified software.

If protection (licensing, trial period) is recorded in the registry,
that can cause failure of reinstalling software or using the program.

Since NAV erased the files, it will probably try to do so again when
trying to reinstall the programs. Could be a false positive by NAV.
The OP could report the false positive to Symantec and in the meantime
whitelist the program(s) (disable NAV, install the programs, whitelist
them in NAV, reenable NAV). Could be the program is infected and NAV is
doing its job.

rwwink

2017-05-26 11:48:46 UTC

Permalink

Apparently, everyone here has a dick out for win10. That's not the
problem,which hasn't been addressed. In this case, the program we're
trying to install is AutoCAD. It will and was running in Win10 using
the comparability option. The OP, for whatever reason, was doing
something with Norton's Anti-Virus and did a mass erase when he took
out the executable files of a number of programs.
All except AutoCAD reinstalled without a problem. During AutoCAD
install, it check for a previous install and/or directory. If it
finds ion, it will not install. I've renamed the directory but it
still will not install. I even moved the directory to another drive
without any results. I'm willing to bet that it reads an entry in the
registry somewhere and that is what is preventing the installation and
that's why I think a cleaner is needed. This whole thing is about
YOUR recommendation about registry cleaners, NOT about good or bad M$
or Win10. It's about which, if any, cleaner you recommend.
R. Wink

Post by VanguardLH

https://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/
If this friend allowed the free upgrade, the option to uninstall
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/rollback-windows-10-after-30-days
Apparently your friend installed Windows 10 and more than 30 days
elapsed without your friend electing to uninstall the upgrade. The
giveaway ended way back on 20-July-2016. The user was hardly "forced"
to move to Windows 10 since he kept it this long. So this friend
upgraded to Windows 10, kept it for almost a year now, and would've had
the problem with the uninstallable program ever since.

pyotr filipivich

2017-05-26 15:57:17 UTC

Permalink

Post by rwwink
Apparently, everyone here has a dick out for win10. That's not the
problem,which hasn't been addressed. In this case, the program we're
trying to install is AutoCAD. It will and was running in Win10 using
the comparability option. The OP, for whatever reason, was doing
something with Norton's Anti-Virus and did a mass erase when he took
out the executable files of a number of programs.
All except AutoCAD reinstalled without a problem. During AutoCAD
install, it check for a previous install and/or directory. If it
finds ion, it will not install. I've renamed the directory but it
still will not install. I even moved the directory to another drive
without any results. I'm willing to bet that it reads an entry in the
registry somewhere and that is what is preventing the installation and
that's why I think a cleaner is needed. This whole thing is about
YOUR recommendation about registry cleaners, NOT about good or bad M$
or Win10. It's about which, if any, cleaner you recommend.

I recommend ccleaner, it has options to both clean out the kruft,
and the registry.
Regisoft has "Free Windows Registry Repair" which cleans up the
registry a little more thoroughly than CCleaner.

Other option is to fire up regedit and search for "autodesk".
AFTER you do the backups.

--
pyotr filipivich
Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?

Paul

2017-05-26 16:18:38 UTC

Permalink

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-design-suite/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-perform-an-automated-uninstall-of-the-AutoCAD-Design-Suite-2013-family-of-products-s.html

ADSUninstallTool.exe (exe - 844Kb)

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-perform-an-automated-uninstallation-of-AutoCAD-2012-and-Autodesk-Design-Suite-2012-Family-Products-s.html

psebuninstalltool.exe (exe - 846Kb)

The other link, is less helpful. "Grab a shovel" it says.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/download-install/remove-products/remove-windows-products

Products with "intellectual property protection systems",
are going to be a lot harder to remove (using a shovel).
That's why you go check their Support page for help
with the task. Some products will write stuff into
inaccessible parts of the file system. When a product claims
it's already installed, or it won't release 1 of n license
keys, it really helps if the company makes a management
tool to help users.

Paul

Shadow

2017-05-26 17:53:47 UTC

Permalink

Post by VanguardLH

Monitor what it looks for at install with ProcMon, and
rename/remove after backing up whatever it is.

Post by rwwink

Post by VanguardLH
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

Thank doG for that. I'd be the first guy to ever catch "a
virusis" from a text.
TY
[]'s

--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

burfordTjustice

2017-05-26 19:54:39 UTC

Permalink

From: Shadow <***@dow.br>
Subject: [OT]Gmail wants me braindead. So Fakebook won't eat it.
Date: Thu, 25 May 2017 16:26:15 -0300
Newsgroups: alt.comp.freeware,alt.privacy,alt.google-sucks,alt.comp.google
Organization: A noiseless patient Shadow
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 3.3/32.846

//Your account has been locked for unusual activity, please visit our
account recovery page//

Oh sht. OK

//Please enter your email//

OK

//Please enter your password//

OK

//Please enter your cellphone number//

Thinks: Oh don't have one. Reads whole page.

// do you want an alternative? //

OK

//Make of your first car//

"idonthavecell"

//Correct. Now please enter an email so you can receive an unlock
code//

Thinks quickly - hum, I've had one in my real name on gmx for two
years. And gmx is "powered by Google"

I enter email and receive unlock code

//Please enter your unlock code//

OK

// Thank you for verifying your account. To finalize, please enter
your cellphone number//

Fsck. Give my son's cellphone number

//That cellphone is not registered in your name. Account locked. Do
you want to create a new account ? //

<repeated 3 times, same result>

So I'm locked out of an account I've had for over a decade.
And the only way to activate it is by buying a tracking
cellphone in my name. With no guarantee they'll unlock my account

FSCK_YOU_YOU_BLOODY_MORONS

Shove your two factor identification up your ass%^%&^. Who the
fsck would guess the make of my first car was "idonthavecell". You are
worse than malware.

PS My "unusual activity" was probably forwarding a malware
link to a malware researcher. Not the binary, just the link. And
labeling it as such. I've done it dozens of times.

(details slightly munged. The question was not "the make of my
first car", but the reply was equally nonsensical, un-guessable, and
correct)

Anyone know how I can get out of this crazy loop ?
TIA
[]'s

--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

VanguardLH

2017-05-26 19:10:31 UTC

Permalink

Post by rwwink
Apparently, everyone here has a dick out for win10.

Your implication was the program was working under Windows 7. It was
AFTER the user moved to Windows 10 when the program refused to install.
However, it is unclear if it was moving to Windows 10 that caused the
problem or with Norton Antivirus (NAV) erasing some files (more likely
putting them into its quarantine to isolate the files).

Post by rwwink
That's not the
problem,which hasn't been addressed. In this case, the program we're
trying to install is AutoCAD. It will and was running in Win10 using
the comparability option. The OP, for whatever reason, was doing
something with Norton's Anti-Virus and did a mass erase when he took
out the executable files of a number of programs.

Well, if it was NAV that triggered on the files as infected, it will do
so again. Only if the user is sure the files are not infected then he
should report a false positive to Symantec. In the meantime, the user
could disable NAV, do the install, whitelist the program in NAV, and
then reenable NAV.

Post by rwwink
All except AutoCAD reinstalled without a problem. During AutoCAD
install, it check for a previous install and/or directory. If it
finds ion, it will not install. I've renamed the directory but it
still will not install. I even moved the directory to another drive
without any results. I'm willing to bet that it reads an entry in the
registry somewhere and that is what is preventing the installation and
that's why I think a cleaner is needed. This whole thing is about
YOUR recommendation about registry cleaners, NOT about good or bad M$
or Win10. It's about which, if any, cleaner you recommend.

Sounded like you said NAV was killing the file(s). Now it sounds like
the installer is checking for licensing conditions probably by looking
in the registry. Since the program was installed before and added
licensing keys into the registry, the installer finds those keys and
invalidates the new install. You (and user-mode software) cannot access
all registry keys, not even if you are an admin-privileged user. The
keys can be addedd programmatically but not visible using regedit.exe or
tools like Revo Uninstaller.

Searching on "autocad" may not find the registry keys responsible for
enforcing the licensing, especially if some 3rd party protection is
employed. Since AutoCAD is a paid (and pricey) program, seems like the
user should be calling them for tech suport on how to reinstall the
program -- if the license is still legit. If the user was using a trial
version of AutoCAD, well, it's likely that trial has expired.
Uninstalling the software won't have it remove the license keys in the
registry.

Does this user have installation media for Windows 10 that is NOT an
upgrade version? If they have either a retail Full or OEM version for
Windows 10 installation, they could wipe the registry by doing a fresh
install of Windows 10.

Did this user have a perpetual license to AutoCAD or did they have a
subscription license? Subscriptions expire, like after a month, and
have to be renewed. If the installer phones home to valid a license but
finds the registered license has expired, the user needs to renew the
subscription. Even starting with a fresh registry with a new
installation of Windows won't bypass a license check by the installer
that phones home to verify the license. Does this software phone home
to verify its license or did the user employ an AutoCAD licensing server
(which still phones home) to validate licenses on workstations with the
corporate network?

If this user paid for the software, why won't this user (or you on his
behalf) contact Autodesk for support? When registering this product,
don't they have you create an account where you can monitor your
licenses?