Windows Installer Problem
Hi, I'm having a big problem and any help would be appreciated. Whenever I am trying to install a new program (that uses Windows Installer to install), I get an error message that says "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running in safe mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance." I have searched all over the internet for Windows Installer to download (so I can replace my bad version), but I have found none because Win 7 is supposed to have Windows Installer built in. I cannot install or uninstall ANY SOFTWARE! I have tried to do a system restore but it says it is turned off but when I go through the steps to turn it on it is showing up as turned on. Not sure if that is related. I have ran Malwarebytes and Eset AntiVirus, both turned up nothing. Again, any help would be greatly appreciated. Have a great day. I am running Win 7 Ultimate 32bit
April 17th, 2010 4:41am

You are correct, Windows Installer is already included in Windows 7. Please verify that the Windows Intaller service is working by searching for "serivces" in the startmenu, then look up "Windows Installer" and make sure it is set to "manual". Also try to start the service and post back the result.Blogging about Windows for IT pros at www.theexperienceblog.com
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
April 17th, 2010 9:14am

I did that and still nothing, I also tried setting it auto and nothing. It starts fine but I still can't install anything. I also restarted the computer and still nothing.
April 17th, 2010 7:19pm

Try the following: Go to start menu, type " MSCONFIG" and right click and press "run as admin". After doing so you should see a window that says "System Configuration" with 5 tabs reading "General", "Boot", "Services", "Startup", and "Tools". Click on the services, sort the coloums by "Service" and scroll down to read "windows installer" make sure the check box is checked. If it's not checked, check it. It will ask you to restart, restart and you should be good. If it is checked and it still doesn't work, try typing "services" and right click and click "run as admin" and scroll to "windows installer" and try starting it. If taht still doesn't work then type "msconfig" and go to the "services" tabs and make sure "Remote Procedure Call (RCP)" is checked, restart and try again last solution I can think of: Go to computer > local disk > windows > system32 > type in the search "msiexec.exe" a bunch of files will apear click on the "msiexec.exe" (with the file path "C:\Windows\System32") a window should come up with a bunch of writting, meaning it's installed. Hope this helped
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
April 19th, 2010 9:16am

Hi, You may refer to the following link to troubleshoot this issue. http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/vista-the-windows-installer-service-could-not-be-accessed/ Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. I realize that you have tried to verify the Windows Installer service. Would you please also try the Windows Installer Registry Fix to check the result. Regards,Arthur Li - MSFT
April 19th, 2010 10:54am

Arthur I have having the exact same issues. I have a new quad-core W7 Professional machine, 64-bit, and there are many things that won't install, incuding Microsoft Updates! This is quite strange seeing that I am the administrator. Even if I run "as administrator" it makes no difference. Other issues I've run into include TurboTax 2009, which I could install, but couldn't update after it was installed. I had to install it on an XP machine so I could do my taxes. iTunes is another problem. It was up and running on my W7 machine, then I tried to update it, and got the message "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running in safe mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance." I was able to install TurboTax 2009 but couldn't install updates. Now I get an error just trying to start iTunes. which tells me to uninstall it. However, if I try to uninstall it, I get the Windows Installer Service error, so I'm stuck with a non-functioning version of iTunes. I also tried to install Microsoft .NET Framework 4, but got "Fatal error during installation." 2 MS monthly automatic updates for Outlook 2003 failed as well. It seems that Microsoft's W7 operating system won't even allow their own updates to work! Often, the update/installation process appears to go well (you see the download happening, it goes through the install routine) and then it fails. I tried most of your suggestions, including manually starting the installer service (why would it be set not to start automatically by default?) but it didn't help. I've seen hundreds of users on various forums complain about this issue. Is Microsoft doing something to fix it? There's no reason that W7 users should not be able to install or update software, especially running as administrators. Please help!
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
April 21st, 2010 8:14pm

Try this: 1. Type "Services" in the search box in the start menu 2. When the box opens, Align by name (to make it easier to find the following) and look for "DCOM Server Process Launcher" and make sure under the "Status" it reads "Started", and undert Startup it reads " Automatic" 3. Scroll and find "RPC Endpoint Mapper" and like before make sure it's started and set on auto.
April 22nd, 2010 1:39am

Hi, I would like to confirm what is the current situation? If repair the Windows Installer service registry cannot fix the issue, you may also perform an In-Place upgrade to repair the system. In-place Upgrade ============ 1. Start the computer. 2. Insert the Windows 7 DVD in the computer's DVD drive. 3. Use one of the following procedures, as appropriate: a. If Windows automatically detects the DVD, the Install now screen appears. Click Install now. b. If Windows does not automatically detect the DVD, follow these steps: b1. Click Start, click Run, type Drive:\setup.exe, and then click OK. Note Drive is the drive letter of the computer's DVD drive. b2. Click Install now. 4. When you reach the Which type of installation to you want? screen, click Upgrade to upgrade the current operating system to Windows 7. Regards,Arthur Li - MSFT
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
April 23rd, 2010 4:54am

Arthur, I tried all of the suggestions, including the registry hack at http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/vista-the-windows-installer-service-could-not-be-accessed/ that you mentioned in your April 19 posting. After installing that registry hack, the only difference I noticed when trying again to install the two MS Office 2007 updates was the status messages stated that 1 of the 2 updates (KB981715) attempted to install and failed, and that the other MS Office 2007 update (KB978380) was deemed not relevant so it didn't try to install. I did not yet try your most recent suggestion from April 23 because I didn't have time. This whole issue is very frustrating because I'm logged in as an adminstrator and the Windows Installer Service is running. As I mentioned earlier, I am unable to update or uninstall iTunes. Also, a new development, I tried to install an update (14.5) to WinZip today, and I got a message that "the System Administrator has set policies to prevent this installation." Again, I am logged in as an administator, so why would I get this error? I did run the update by right-clicking on it and running as the administator, and it did eventually install (I got a few messages during the process telling me it couldn't find a file in a given path, but I bypassed the messages and it looks like the update succeeded. I also cannot update my Adobe Reader - I get "Update Failed - Error 1111" Could you please tell me why Windows 7 Professional thinks I am not an administrator, forcing me to run "as administrator"? It makes no sense. FYI, I also have a laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), but it isn't having the Installer/update issues that my Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) machine is having. I think the installer problems may be related to the fact that my Windows 7 Professional computer is acting as though I am not logged in with admin rights. Does Microsoft have any information about this issue? Again, I have seen so many users posting this type of issue on various websites, so it is obviously it is affecting a lot of people. Please help us! I really like using Windows 7, but this issue with not being able to run updates is making the experience quiet frustrating!
May 3rd, 2010 1:57am

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics