The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed

[Anne Marie Brest]

After validating my Windows XP installation &
double-clicking on the downloaded
MicrosoftAntiSpywareInstall.exe program, all I get is the
error message:

Windows Installer:
The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed.
This can occur if you are running Windows in safe mode,
or if the Windows Installer is not correcly installed.
Contact your support personnel for assistance.

I have personally installed scores of programs on this
computer which have NEVER exhibited any installation
problem so I must suspect something else.

Can you provide debugging hints?
Is there a "service" (services.msc /s) which must be enabled?

Anne Marie Brest

 

[Frogman]

Anne Marie,

Try right clicking on My Computer and go to Manage. Then
look for Services. Toward the bottom of Services you
will find the Windows Installer Service. Right click on
this service and then click Start. That should solve
your problem.

Frogman

 

[Guest]

On XP SP2, even if I manually start the service (which it
does fine) it still does not work, same message. I have
installed other Windows Installer programs as a test and
they work fine. I also did all the fixes in the knowledge
base and still the same. Since everything checks out and
other programs work fine, it is some quirk in this
programs setup.

 

[Thomas Kincaid]

1. I had the same error as Anne Marie Brest did.

2. My question is:
Should this WINDOWS INSTALLER service be set to:
- automatic ?
or
- manual?

3. Mine is currently set to MANUAL and I had to hit the
START button to start the service.

Should this WINDOWS INSTALLER service be set to AUTOMATIC?

TK

 

[SYNACK]

I had no problem under XP, but got exactly this message
under W2k (see my post here from Jan 6 2005 5:49PM).

It got solved by installing the Windows Installer 3.0.

XP Service Pack 2 includes this, have you upgraded yet?

In any case, search for KB article 884016 for the download
link. Or go here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=884016

Download and install the package as indicated.

See if this helps. Good luck!