All .msi Installers Fail Silently Unless "runas /user:Administrato

[Mark_Melvin]

Hi There,

I have a problem with my machine (Windows XP 32-bit SP3) that has just
appeared and I have tried everything I can possibly think of with no luck (I
am quite computer literate...so you are not dealing with a noob here). I'm
looking for some expert help here because it is driving me insane.

So, the problem is I cannot install *anything* that uses Windows Installer
(.msi) under the covers. This includes many third party software packages
that I use, as well as Windows XP packages and updates themselves. What
happens when I run an .msi file is I see the Windows Installer dialog briefly
flash up on the screen and nothing happens. There is no error or even any
event in my event logs, and if I run the .msi file using msiexec with all
logging and debug info turned on, I get nothing in the log file except a
single line indicating it started.

The weird part is this just started to happen one dayu so obviously
something has changed on my system to screw things up. After much beating my
head against the monitor and desk I attempted to run one of the failing
installers "as Administrator" and it worked. Wha..? I *am* an
administrator, so why does running it as Administrator make any difference
whatsoever?

Anyway, the *only* way I can get anything based on Windows Installer to
install now is to open a dos prompt and type:

runas /user:Administrator "msiexec.exe /i c:\full\path\to\installer.msi"

This prompts me for my password and runs the installer just fine. But I am
and always have been an adminstrator! I don't get it. Here is a list of
things I have tried recently to fix this:

-Install all available Windows updates
-Remove all .NET versions and re-install as required
-Remove Silverlight
-Remove Windows Installer and re-install
-Update to Windows Installer 4.5 (I think that is what this is -
WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe)
-Roll back to an earlier date
-Undo the roll back
-Install Windows XP SP3
-Yell and scream

So, now I am posting here. The only possible thing I can think of that may
have any bearing on this whatsoever is that originally my username did not
have a password associated with it. At some point in the past I changed my
account to have a password associated with it and if I recall correctly this
changed permissions on a bunch of files. My user password is now the same as
the administrator password on this machine. The only thing I can think of is
that some system file or directory got its permissions all screwed up and is
the root of the problem. I'd be happy to provide any additional information
if requested as I would love to solve this one. It is shortening my
life-span...

Thanks in advance,
Mark.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Aaron Stebner's WebLog Solving setup errors by using the SubInACL tool to
repair file and registry permissions:
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/09/04/739820.aspx

 

[Mark_Melvin]

Well about 20 minutes and a 1.8GB (yes, "Giga") log file later - it still
doesn't work.

I kind of feel like I should not have run that script. What the heck did it
do - change permissions on pretty much everything to be default, or wide-open
to everyone?

Anyway, thanks for the reply but - any other ideas?

Mark.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

How to resolve Common Windows Installer Problems:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555175/en-us
Error “The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed†in Windows
Vista:
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/vista-the-windows-installer-service-could-not-be-accessed/

 

[Mark_Melvin]

Thanks again - I'll have a read but it looks like nothing I have not seen
before. The problem is - I have no error message to go off of. Nothing.
Zip. Nada. It just fails to execute with no error or any other helpful
information whatsoever.

Mark.

 

[Nepatsfan]

Hi There,

I have a problem with my machine (Windows XP 32-bit SP3) that has just
appeared and I have tried everything I can possibly think of with no luck (I
am quite computer literate...so you are not dealing with a noob here). I'm
looking for some expert help here because it is driving me insane.

So, the problem is I cannot install *anything* that uses Windows Installer
(.msi) under the covers. This includes many third party software packages
that I use, as well as Windows XP packages and updates themselves. What
happens when I run an .msi file is I see the Windows Installer dialog briefly
flash up on the screen and nothing happens. There is no error or even any
event in my event logs, and if I run the .msi file using msiexec with all
logging and debug info turned on, I get nothing in the log file except a
single line indicating it started.

The weird part is this just started to happen one dayu so obviously
something has changed on my system to screw things up. After much beating my
head against the monitor and desk I attempted to run one of the failing
installers "as Administrator" and it worked. Wha..? I *am* an
administrator, so why does running it as Administrator make any difference
whatsoever?

Anyway, the *only* way I can get anything based on Windows Installer to
install now is to open a dos prompt and type:

runas /user:Administrator "msiexec.exe /i c:\full\path\to\installer.msi"

This prompts me for my password and runs the installer just fine. But I am
and always have been an adminstrator! I don't get it. Here is a list of
things I have tried recently to fix this:

-Install all available Windows updates
-Remove all .NET versions and re-install as required
-Remove Silverlight
-Remove Windows Installer and re-install
-Update to Windows Installer 4.5 (I think that is what this is -
WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe)
-Roll back to an earlier date
-Undo the roll back
-Install Windows XP SP3
-Yell and scream

So, now I am posting here. The only possible thing I can think of that may
have any bearing on this whatsoever is that originally my username did not
have a password associated with it. At some point in the past I changed my
account to have a password associated with it and if I recall correctly this
changed permissions on a bunch of files. My user password is now the same as
the administrator password on this machine. The only thing I can think of is
that some system file or directory got its permissions all screwed up and is
the root of the problem. I'd be happy to provide any additional information
if requested as I would love to solve this one. It is shortening my
life-span...

Thanks in advance,
Mark.

If you're unable to get this resolved for your user account you might want to
log on with the Administrator account, create a new user account that's a member
of the administrators group, and see if the problem persists. If it doesn't
happen with the new account you might consider abandoning your old account and
copying your old files to the new account. Log on as Administrator and use the
procedure outlined in this article to copy files from one account to the other.

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/811151

As noted in the article, you'll have to manually move email messages and
recreate any accounts.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Mark_Melvin]

I systematically tried every method on that page and nothing worked. <sigh>...

M.

 

[Mark_Melvin]

So I created another user account and set them to be a computer
administrator, then logged in as the new user. However, now all .msi files
are of an unknown type for this user and I cannot execute/install them.
There is no icon associated with them and when I double-click the file it
asks me which program I want to run it with. WTF? I thought Windows
Installer was machine-wide?

So if I log back in as me, they are associated with msiexec. The Install
action is associated as follows:

"C:\WINDOWS\System32\msiexec.exe" /i "%1" %*

With DDE enabled, and a topic of System. Does this seem correct?

So why can't I install an .msi file on the new user's account? I did not
expect this behaviour at all.

Mark.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

There is an Installer 4.0. Your system may be offered the upgrade from the
Windows Update site if you enable optional updates. Another possibility is
running 'SFC /scannow' from a command prompt.

 

[Mark_Melvin]

Thanks - but as I said in an earlier post I have already installed that with
no luck. My msi.dll version is 4.5.6001.22159.

Mark.