Windows Installer Error

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jamie7823

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Windows Installer screwed. Will not let me install anything. Says "The windows installer service could not be accessed. This can occur if your running windows in safe mode, or if the windows installer is currently not installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance."
Im not in safe mode and my windows installer is installed. I cant install anything.
 
The instruction below are adequate for systems running Windows XP with service pack 1 (SP1). However, if you have updated your Windows Operating System to service pack 2 (SP2) then you may find that you receive an error message to the effect that c:\windows\system32\dllcache could not be found on your system. This basically means that you are unable to continue with the instructions.

Although Microsoft have a redistributable download of the Windows Installer 3.0 available it cannot be used when Windows XP Service pack 2 (SP2) has been installed. The reason being that SP2 already has the Windows Installer 3.0 software added and, because of file protection, would not allow the Windows Installer file to be replaced.

To that end one is faced with two options regarding the replacement of the Windows Installer. One can either reinstall the Windows XP service pack 2 (SP2) (Obviously it would be wise to 'uninstall' the service pack SP2 prior to attempting to reinstall it, assuming, of course, the update wasn't installed from a slipstreamed copy or from a boxed copy of Windows XP including SP2) The alternative is to do a Windows XP repair in order to reinstall the Windows Installer. To do a 'repair' see question 55. How Do I Repair My Windows XP Installation.



1/ Click the Start button

2/ From the Start menu click Run

3/ In the Run dialog box type: cmd and press Return

4/ The Command Prompt window will now appear

5/ In the Command Prompt window type the following pressing Return after each entry:

attrib -r -s -h

c:\windows\system32\dllcache

cd c:\windows\system32\

ren msi.dll msi.old

ren msiexec.exe msiexec.old

ren msihnd.dll msihnd.old

exit

6/ After Exiting from the Command Window Reboot your PC

7/ The Windows Installer should now automatically be reinstalled.
 
Thanks for all the replys but here was my final fix.

1. Click Start, click Run, type MSIEXEC /UNREGISTER, and then click OK. Even if you do this correctly, it may look like nothing occurs.
2. Click Start, click Run, type MSIEXEC /REGSERVER, and then click OK. Even if you do this correctly, it may look like nothing occurs, or you may briefly see an hourglass. After you run this command, the operation is complete.
3. Try your Windows Installer-based application again.
 
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