Windows Installer Service

[William Pine]

I'm running XP Home. I've not yet installed SP 2.

My attempt to uninstall Norton Antivirus 2002 so I can install Norton
Antivirus 2005 upgrade gets the error message: "The Windows Installer
Service cannot be accessed. ... This can occur if the Windows Installer is
not correctly installed."

I'm not running in safe mode, so I assume the problem is incorrect
installation of Windows Installer Service. How can I correctly install it?

Thanks,

Bill Pine

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

I'm running XP Home. I've not yet installed SP 2.

My attempt to uninstall Norton Antivirus 2002 so I can install Norton
Antivirus 2005 upgrade gets the error message: "The Windows Installer
Service cannot be accessed. ... This can occur if the Windows Installer is
not correctly installed."

I'm not running in safe mode, so I assume the problem is incorrect
installation of Windows Installer Service. How can I correctly install it?

Hi

Some Windows Installer repair tips here for Windows XP:

http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

 

[jeffrey]

Hi,

Have you tried to remove NAV 2002 by using the CD? If I remember correctly
if you put in the CD from the autostart you have option to repair or remove
the program. Try using that. If that doesn`t work, only other solution I
can think of is manually removing and delete all entries in the registry
pointing to NAV 2002.

Jeff

 

[WaIIy]

I'm running XP Home. I've not yet installed SP 2.

My attempt to uninstall Norton Antivirus 2002 so I can install Norton
Antivirus 2005 upgrade gets the error message: "The Windows Installer
Service cannot be accessed. ... This can occur if the Windows Installer is
not correctly installed."

I'm not running in safe mode, so I assume the problem is incorrect
installation of Windows Installer Service. How can I correctly install it?

Thanks,

Bill Pine

You can go to Symantec and use their small uninstaller tool.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2001083014161306

Manually uninstalling Norton AntiVirus 2002 from Windows NT/2000/XP

Situation:
This document describes how to manually uninstall Norton AntiVirus 2002
NAV, when it is installed under Windows NT/2000/XP.

Solution:

Note: The preferred method for removing NAV is to use the Add/Remove
Programs applet in the Windows NT/2000/XP Control Panel. If that does
not work, then run the Rnav.exe removal utility. The manual
uninstallation should be used only when uninstalling NAV from the
Control Panel or running the NAV removal utility does not work.

 

[William Pine]

Torgeir:

Thanks for the tip.

Reluctant to edit the registry, I tried "Method 2: Reinstall the Windows
Installer" described in the Knowledge Base article you suggested. It didn't
work. When I again tried to uninstall Norton Antivirus 2002, I again got
the message "Windows Installer Could Not be Accessed."

I've now renamed msi.dll to msi.old, msiexec.exe to msiexec.old, and
msihnd.dll to msihnd.old.

Must I now attempt the registry edit to fix the problem? If so, must I
rename back to the original names the files that I renamed *.old files that
I changed to attempt reinstallation of Windows Explorer?

Bill Pine

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Torgeir:

Thanks for the tip.

Reluctant to edit the registry, I tried "Method 2: Reinstall the Windows
Installer" described in the Knowledge Base article you suggested. It didn't
work. When I again tried to uninstall Norton Antivirus 2002, I again got
the message "Windows Installer Could Not be Accessed."

I've now renamed msi.dll to msi.old, msiexec.exe to msiexec.old, and
msihnd.dll to msihnd.old.

Must I now attempt the registry edit to fix the problem?

I would say it's worth a try, yes.

If so, must I rename back to the original names the files that I renamed
*.old files that I changed to attempt reinstallation of Windows Explorer?

No.