Cannot Uninstall ISA Server if IIS Has Already Been Removed

When you use the Add/Remove Programs tool to uninstall Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, the uninstallation may not work, and you may receive the following error message: CPU utilization may appear to be 100 percent, and the Processes tab in Windows Task Manager may display 4 instances of Cmd.exe that each consume approximately 20-25 percent of available CPU cycles.

This problem can occur if IIS has been removed before you try to uninstall ISA Server. The ISA Server uninstallation tries to remove non-existent registry entries during the uninstallation, and this can result in the error message that is listed in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

To work around this problem:

1. Start Windows Task Manager, and then click the Processes tab.
2. One at a time, click each instance of Cmd.exe, and then click End Process to end the process. Repeat this procedure until all of the Cmd.exe processes are stopped.
3. Click Start, click Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.
4. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
5. Click to select the Internet Information Service check box. Click the Detail button to remove any IIS components you do not want to install.
6. After the IIS installation completes, you can use the Add/Remove Programs tool to uninstall ISA Server.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.