Windows Installer: Troubleshooting.

The overwhelming majority of users working on home PCs of all types sometimes need to install a new program from Microsoft Corporation. Usually just a couple of mouse clicks - and ready, you can use. But, like any sufficiently complex system, Windows may fail. As a rule, the service is responsible for the problem - "Windows Installer", which extracts programs from installation packages and registers values to work in the registry. All files packed with the protocols of this installer are supplied with the msi extension. Each package is based on OLE technology (a universal solution used for Microsoft software products) and is a clearly structured database of data from corresponding tables with the data necessary for installation. In addition, it is also a set of libraries, scripts and other files, packed with cab-archiver. For installation packages from Microsoft for Windows since 2000 it is typical to use this service, which replaced ACME Setup, the standard installer of previous versions of Windows. The main differences from the installer of archaic versions of Windows (3.11 and 9x) - graphical interface, return to the previous state of the system at any time, as well as the ability to remove the program. It should be noted that there are a number of widely used alternative installers - Inno Setup, Nullsoft Installation System, Minstaller, Spinstall, Smart Install Maker, Rinstall Wizard and so on, but for obvious reasons the Windows Installer takes the lead.

In this article, we will discuss how to fix possible problems with Windows Installer by performing a set of recovery procedures that will not allow you to reinstall the operating system again, which is preferred by most users. In the worst case, you will need to check and re-register a large number of libraries, check several registry keys or reinstall the program. But it is quite possible, all will manage only start of the automated recovery utility which will do all for you. We have tried to collect as much information as possible on this issue, which will save you time.

So, typical errors when running Windows Installer installation packages - "Windows Installer Service failed to start," "Windows Installer access failed", "Windows Installer service failed to start on the local computer". "Error 5: Access denied". We try to run the automated mode of fixing the problem through the Microsoft FixIt application by downloading the appropriate patch from the official website of the corporation. A link to the patch can be obtained in article 2438651 (for older systems than Windows 7, the system will install the service of automatic diagnostics, for XP users it is necessary to upgrade to SP3 before installation).

If for some reason the patch does not help and the same error pops up, we try to cope with the problem in a different way. Run the command line (Win + R> cmd.exe) in the system administrator mode. Type sfc / scannow and wait for the system to repair the damaged libraries. Reregister the service with the msiexec / unregister and msiexec / regserver commands. After that, register the Windows Installer library using the regsvr32 msi.dll command. Then you need to try to run the installation file again. Most likely, everything will work. If not, you need to reboot the system in safe mode by typing the msiexec / regserver command there. Try again. If this did not help, then it's time to reinstall the "Windows Installer" service itself. The easiest way to do this is with the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. You can download it from the official Microsoft support site, at the same time, "grab" the Windows 45 installer from the official site, which itself is the most current version for almost the entire modern line of Windows. Most likely, this version of the installer is more modern than the one that was installed on your machine. Unless you have used the Windows 7 installer on a licensed copy. After all the troubles, run the installation file of the program. If you did everything correctly, then everything will be successful.