Strange iTunes problems

[Rick]

I am having some rather strange problems with iTunes (7.1.059) on my 'puter (Late model Dell, core 2 duo, 2 gigs ram, plenty of HD space, XP home with all patches). I think they may be related.
About a month ago, both my desk top and quick launch icons quit working with a message that they could not locate iTunes. Going in through Windows explorer, I could find iTunes and launch it from there. So I deleted those shortcuts and created two new ones. Everything works fine.
Until now. I get a message that there is a new version of iTunes (7.1.1) and do I want it? Sure. The program downloads, but during the installation it stops, and I get the following message

The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

click OK again or enter an alternate path to folder containing the installation package ‘iTunes.msi’ in the box below.

The file path shown is to a temp file C:\DOCUME~1\Rick\LOCALS~1\Temp\IXP962.TMP
When I hit the drop down arrow it gives me one other choice
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\Installer Cache\iTunes 7.0.2.16
Both of these return the following error message

The path [insert file path here] cannot be found. Verify you have access to this location and try again, or try and find the installation package ‘iTunes.msi’ in a folder from which you can install the product iTunes.

Since I have the installation package on my desktop, I tried point the file there. No joy.
I do a search on itunes.msi and find all I find is one occurrence in C:P\program files\packages\itunes. Same result, same error message.
Clicking on cancel gives me a message that the older version of itunes cannot be removed.
Thinking that the file download may have been corrupted, I delete the installation package and redownload the installation package from Apple. Same result.
So anybody got a suggestion on what I should do?

I’m thinking I may have to uninstall iTunes, but I don’t want to lose any music.

[MrSquishy]

Sounds to me like a reinstall of iTunes would be in order, if you can uninstall it. I’m guessing the problem is that the upgrade script can’t uninstall it because it can’t find the original installer, so “Add/Remove Programs” might not be able to find it either.

Anyway, I’d try an uninstall via Add/Remove Programs, and then reinstall from scratch. I don’t think you need to worry about losing any music, as it’s all kept in your iTunes Library, and the uninstall won’t touch that (at least, not without asking you first).

If Add/Remove Programs won’t let you get rid of the old version, there is a document on the Apple support site that tells you how to remove all traces of iTunes from your computer. It probably involves some registry editing.

[Rick]

Thanks, I will give that a try.
Any idea why my shortcuts stopped working? It just seems strange.