When you try to install a program which uses the built in Windows Installer service, it gives the following error:
The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed.
This can occur if you are running Windows in safe
mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly
installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.
This issue may occur in Windows XP or in Windows Vista. The reason behind this error is that sometimes the Windows Installer service gets corrupt due to registry corruptions etc. or simple enough the Windows Installer service is not running at all. There are two fixes that I have found useful for this problem.
Through Run Command:
This is the Microsoft solution which comes in handy because of its ease of use:
- Log on to your computer as an administrator.
- Click Start, and then click Run.
- In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
- At the command prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister, and then press ENTER.
- Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.
Through Registry:
This is also a simple trick. Just download the following registry file and double click it. It will ask if you want the information to be added to the registry, just press yes. Now you should be able to install your programs without any problems. If still there’s a problem, restart your system once.
Restore Windows Installer Service (7.0 KiB, 17,962 hits)
Guys, you are wonderful. The reg file helped after several ours of waste! thank you! saved my day.
Drugelis
didn’t work. nothing works. did every single thing that i found on the net and nothing did the trick! still cannot install! HELP PLEASE!
Your little me are the problem in this, is Search menu to appear, the Search button on the Standard still available, but when you click on it only up to each dog’s (Animate character): cry: Yes not appear to be items you can enter information Search?
I have not encountered this case never should also not know the history how to find it in group policy but not out, so they only know me with giùm nhé, thanks a lot everyone!
Guys, you are wonderful. The reg file helped after several ours of waste! thank you! saved my day.
I wish it had worked, but it didn’t.
Beautiful. Command line commands worked excellently and took 10 seconds. Thanks!!!!!!!!
Thanks a lot!!! It works!!!
absolutely brilliant,simple ,easy and effeiciant.kudos
Thanks alot , its working fine.
wheres the download link ?pls help
Hi Sanix,
Thanks a lot!!!
It worked!!!
plssss help … there is no download link , where is it? plsssssss
this is wrighted ([download id="137"])
daria, thank you for pointing out. Now all the download links are working. Kindly check again and download the tool you want.
thanx very much , you guys really helped me out , thank youuuuuuuuu again
The download is an mp3 file…so it didn’t work.
Outstanding! Command line commands worked perfectly! Took only seconds! Thanks!!
hey tangerine , change the extension of the file , delete (mp3) extension to (reg) . then try it again
Thanks a lot. Registry file solved my problem.
Thankssssssssssss a lot.
simple and effective, thanks
The registry file worked for me. Thanks a lot!
Thank you very much! can sleep now!
kool man! thanks a lor! it works great!!!!!!!!!
that’s the best solution!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my pc will not let me download anything i an in IE
well, i tried everything on microsoft’s web site (several different pages in support dedicated to the issue, but all offering different solutions) and did the two hacks suggested in this forum, but nothing has worked. if anybody has a sure fire solution, i would love to know. interestingly, when doing one of the microsoft remedies, a dialogue box popped up saying that i did not need to do it, as the files were fine and up to date. whatever . . . i would be interested in any other solutions, though, as i am doing a rebuild and have a ton of software to install . . . never had this problem before . . . and i have done about 30 builds from scratch!
I get garbled text on the link. ???
@sean
The download link is working perfectly. Can you kindly use a different browser for the download?If it still doesn’t work, please let me know.
Thanks
# At the command prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister, and then press ENTER.
# Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.
Works everytime
BUT why does it seem I have to do it everytime I try to install .msi progs?
While this didn’t work for me, glad it workd for some… There’s a couple of minor issues with it, that probably don’t adversely affect the system running properly, just UI stuff. (I think)
It downloaded via Firefox v3.5.6 as an HTM file (Restore Windows Installer Service.htm) – plus it was unicode, not sure if that affects anyone. I renamed it to .REG (of course) and double-clicked it to load it to my Registry.. (*after* loading Regedit and going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services and exporting the MSIServer key for backup! – People should do this anyway, just in case!)
I noticed off the bat that you put:
“Description”=”@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\msimsg.dll,-32″
Which isn’t right, since it’s supposed to be:
“Description”=”Adds, modifies, and removes applications provided…” etc. etc..
AKA: It’s supposed to be the text description of the service! So maybe some other variable that *should* be “@%SystemRoot%\\…” etc… is not getting set so(?)
Similarly:
“DisplayName”=”@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\msimsg.dll,-27″
Is not right either, as it’s for Humans to read (just like Description is) – it should be:
“DisplayName”=”Windows Installer”
So again I wonder if that string should be getting assigned to some other variable that it’s not getting assigned to…(?)
That’s all – thanks anyway, I guess I’ll keep looking for what’s up with my system. I’m going to try to find a place to (re)install the stuff – maybe that’ll help(?) Cheers
Thanks so much guys. This worked for me.
Log on to your computer as an administrator.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister, and then press ENTER.
Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.
This little trick worked well! Thank you soo much. Saved me from
having to buy a scanner and/or taking it to be fixed.
Bullcrap. Link takes me to regcure – not a reg file.
It works.
I just downloaded it.
to Candy: open the link in new tab & copy the url to Internet Download Manager(Add download)..wait till the .reg file size is shown & click download.
Hey Mikami, it doesn’t work for me… how do i download the registry file? when i click on it i’m being diverted to http://quad-cleaner.com/v3/?PI.....f2fbd9d2e7
Can you pls let me know the step by step to download it?
Thanks
Lo, you can use any other web browser other than Firefox ( preferably IE) to download this file. Firefox doesn’t seem to associate the file with a program correctly.
Thanks alot guys, this really helped !!
wait, whats supposed to happen after you type:
Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.
nothing happened for me. PLEASE HELP
WorkED!!!!