It seems like I have a Windows Installer Service issue. My OS is Vista 64bit Home Premium. Certain programs are not installing (Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to name one). Win 7 Upgrade Advisor gave this error message when trying to install:



Most programs install fine, but this, .NET Framework 2.0, and some other installers have issues and can't seem to install. I have not had any issues uninstalling programs. Looks like this might be my issue with Nvidia drivers (I hope so at least).

I've come across this link:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-installati...l-versions.html


Seems easy enough, but I would need the:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\msiserver


from a working Vista 64bit system's registry. If anyone has Vista 64bit and can upload this registry file, I would appreciate it. Also a quick question about the registry. If I where to make a back up with Crap Cleaner, and doing the above only causes more issues, I can revert to my old backup registry. How would I do this? Double click on the .reg backup file Crap Cleaner creates?


Finally, the last reply on page 2 mentions what might be my problem. Apparently the registry file:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer

has to have its WOW64 file set to:

0x00000000 (0)

However, mine is set to:

0x00000001 (1)



I am guessing this might fix the issue as well? Do I just right click, export the WOW64 file to back it up, then make the change, and reboot and it should work? And if it doesn't I just double click on the original exported WOW64 file to restore it to how it was, correct?


Anything else I can do to repair the Windows Installer Service or fix this issue? Thanks in advance.

Have you tried to reinstall Windows Installer?:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/de...;displaylang=en

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942288

Dealt with this on someone's pc very recently. Any update that required Win Installer (this is 5) woudln't install--including MS SE updates. Couldn't find a way to reinstall windows installer 5. Worse, they had uninstalled MS SE thinking it was the issue, and then it wouldn't reinstall either--another issue that sidetracked me until I figured out this was the root issue, not any other remnants of av's.
Ran Malware Bytes and did find some issues, but I forget what they were called.

There are many suggestions on how to deal with it, of course starting with going into admin and services and making sure Win Installer is started (manual is normal, btw). Tried all kinds of things, but no luck and no advice worked.
After a while it was easier to back up and reinstall.

The usual checklist of MS's suggestions to try are easily found on MS Technet, try those first. Search by the error code to find it faster. You'll find a lot of links and a moderator locking the thread, referring to the "standard checklist". They must be getting tired of this issue.

Run Malware Bytes and see if it finds anything. I'd like to compare to see if these match up or if there's another cause.

No issues with Mbam, I run that weekly. I will check the above links and then head to MS Technet.

As for reinstalling, which version would I need? I am guessing this one as Vista is "Windows 6.0"?

Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-ia64.msu


As for backing up the registry, should I just make a restore point before doing anything?

That should do the trick on both counts.

Did you skip a service pack? This installer is an update for Vista SP1, but it is standard in SP2 and SP3.

Nevertheless, it still can help restore the functionality back.

Windows Installer 5 is the current one.
You might not be able to install the service pack, or not all of it. Seems like it worked for me from cd but not download. Some components still will not install, but not everything uses Win Int 5.


Go back and check your update history. You'll probably have a long history of update failures. If you're lucky you may have a restore point from before that time. However, it may have filled you up with restore points as it tried to update and failed.


I did not try copying from a donor pc. Not sure that would work, but you could look into it. I could never find 5 to download, the latest I found was 4.5 that Bib linked to, but I wasn't comfortable trying that. Win7 isn't listed and I didn't want to risk making things worse. If you can't download it, I figured there must be a reason.

I'm not sure WI 5.0 will run with Vista. Maybe it will, but this was a release for Windows 7 and Win Server 2008.

With 4.5, Vista and Vista 64 are supported, but Win 7 is an unknown. It wasn't the time to be a guinea pig. LOL