Windows Installer corrupted?

[Warren J. Hairston]

One of our Win XP machines w/SP2 brings up a Windows Installer window
stating "Preparing to install..." whenever we launch any Internet-connected
program (IE, Outlook Express, Norton AntiVirus, etc.) This causes the system
to hang for a minute or two, the A: drive gets accessed, then eventually the
dialog box goes away.

I've cleaned off all spyware (using 5 different programs), run multiple
antivirus programs (3 total) against the system, and applied all Windows
updates. Through trial-and-error, I have discovered that the problem will go
away if I reboot the system with the Windows Installer service turned off
through MSConfig. Of course, this makes it impossible to install anything.
If I turn the Windows Installer service back on, I still can't install
anything - the "Preparing to install..." window just reappears but nothing
happens.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version of Windows
Installer, but it doesn't seem to help. When I try to install my Microsoft
Office 2003 upgrade CD on this system, I get an error message telling me
that the patch is invalid.

At this point, I'm fairly sure that Windows Installer and/or some of its
registry entries are corrupted. Is there any way to completely and cleanly
remove this subsystem from Windows so that I can load a fresh copy of
Windows Installer 3.1???

Thanks in advance!

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You receive the "This patch package could not be opened" error
message in an Office program
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;295823

Windows Installer Appears Every Time a Program Is Started
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;265194

Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| One of our Win XP machines w/SP2 brings up a Windows Installer window
| stating "Preparing to install..." whenever we launch any Internet-connected
| program (IE, Outlook Express, Norton AntiVirus, etc.) This causes the system
| to hang for a minute or two, the A: drive gets accessed, then eventually the
| dialog box goes away.
|
| I've cleaned off all spyware (using 5 different programs), run multiple
| antivirus programs (3 total) against the system, and applied all Windows
| updates. Through trial-and-error, I have discovered that the problem will go
| away if I reboot the system with the Windows Installer service turned off
| through MSConfig. Of course, this makes it impossible to install anything.
| If I turn the Windows Installer service back on, I still can't install
| anything - the "Preparing to install..." window just reappears but nothing
| happens.
|
| I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version of Windows
| Installer, but it doesn't seem to help. When I try to install my Microsoft
| Office 2003 upgrade CD on this system, I get an error message telling me
| that the patch is invalid.
|
| At this point, I'm fairly sure that Windows Installer and/or some of its
| registry entries are corrupted. Is there any way to completely and cleanly
| remove this subsystem from Windows so that I can load a fresh copy of
| Windows Installer 3.1???
|
| Thanks in advance!

 

[Rock]

One of our Win XP machines w/SP2 brings up a Windows Installer window
stating "Preparing to install..." whenever we launch any Internet-connected
program (IE, Outlook Express, Norton AntiVirus, etc.) This causes the system
to hang for a minute or two, the A: drive gets accessed, then eventually the
dialog box goes away.

I've cleaned off all spyware (using 5 different programs), run multiple
antivirus programs (3 total) against the system, and applied all Windows
updates. Through trial-and-error, I have discovered that the problem will go
away if I reboot the system with the Windows Installer service turned off
through MSConfig. Of course, this makes it impossible to install anything.
If I turn the Windows Installer service back on, I still can't install
anything - the "Preparing to install..." window just reappears but nothing
happens.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version of Windows
Installer, but it doesn't seem to help. When I try to install my Microsoft
Office 2003 upgrade CD on this system, I get an error message telling me
that the patch is invalid.

At this point, I'm fairly sure that Windows Installer and/or some of its
registry entries are corrupted. Is there any way to completely and cleanly
remove this subsystem from Windows so that I can load a fresh copy of
Windows Installer 3.1???

Thanks in advance!

Look at the Windows Installer Clean up Utility:
Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=290301

How to use the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...de/en-gb/utility2.asp#XSLTSection122121121120

Every time I launch my application, Windows Installer performs an
installation. How can I determine the cause of the on-demand installation?
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/community/centers/management/msi_faq.mspx

 

[Warren J. Hairston]

The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility was what I needed to fix the problem.
Thanks to everyone who responded!

 

[Rock]

The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility was what I needed to fix the problem.
Thanks to everyone who responded!

Great, glad it worked for you and thanks for posting back.