Windows Installer error on bootup

[Guest]

For some reason unknown to me, everytime I boot up now (for the last week) I
get a window that pop ups after everything has loaded up that shows Windows
Installer in the title bar of the window. Then another window pop ups on top
of that which informs me that "This MSI must be launched through setup" and
an OK button.

I have no clue what an MSI is or why Windows Installer is being triggered
upon bootup. If I click the OK button three (3) times, both windows go away.

I am running Windows XP Home Edition with SP2 installed.

TIA for any help!

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

For some reason unknown to me, everytime I boot up now (for the last week) I
get a window that pop ups after everything has loaded up that shows Windows
Installer in the title bar of the window. Then another window pop ups on top
of that which informs me that "This MSI must be launched through setup" and
an OK button.

I have no clue what an MSI is or why Windows Installer is being triggered
upon bootup. If I click the OK button three (3) times, both windows go away.

Hi

Most likely it is Windows Installer doing an on-demand installation...

See "Every time I launch my application, Windows Installer performs an
installation. How can I determine the cause of the on-demand installation?"
in the FAQ at

http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/community/centers/management/msi_faq.mspx

To access the Application Log in the Event viewer,
run the following command from Start/Run:

eventvwr.msc


If you are running Windows XP (or have access to a Windows XP computer,
you can copy MSIZAP.EXE over to your Win2k computer):

If a product code is listed there and this product is not really installed,
MSIZAP.EXE is maybe able to fix this issue, it is included as a utility in
the support tools installation package (on your WinXP CD) with some
additional
documentation included in suptools.chm (installed by suptools.msi).

It will remove all Windows Installer entries for a product key that you feed
it with.

Note that if MSIZAP.EXE is used incorrectly it can affect other applications
on the machine.

Based on the documentation in
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/msi/setup/msizap_exe.asp

this is what you should run:

msizap T {product code}

an example:
msizap T {FFB37294-1155-17D3-A809-0250BAAFB1AB}


Alternatively, for a more user friendly interface to MSIZAP.EXE ,
take a look at this article:

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

 

[Guest]

Well, I did my best to follow your instructions but they may be a bit too
technical in nature for me! I ran eventvwr.msc and viewed the installer log.
There are 3401 entries in there. I look at some of the more recent ones,
i.e. generated after bootup this morning and discovered this entry: Detection
of product (then what looks like a registry key) feature 'Complete' failed
during request for component (then another registry key).

I did a search in the registry using regedit and found the first key (which
refers to MSInstaller) but the second key was not found.

Then I downloaded and installed the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility and
ran that. That produced a long list of familiar and not so familiar entries
all of which I am hesitant to remove until I know what I need to remove in
order to get rid of the Windows Installer prompt and error message subject of
my original post.

Running of eventvwr.msc and getting the 'Complete failed during request for
component' information doesn't really tell me what 'Complete' is....

As I said, this only recently started occuring so I am sure it's related to
something I may have installed. I do know that I have NOT installed any
Microsoft products recently but have installed a variety of other programs.

Any additional ideas on determining what 'Complete' might be referring to?

TIA again.

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Well, I did my best to follow your instructions but they may be a bit too
technical in nature for me! I ran eventvwr.msc and viewed the installer log.
There are 3401 entries in there. I look at some of the more recent ones,
i.e. generated after bootup this morning and discovered this entry: Detection
of product (then what looks like a registry key) feature 'Complete' failed
during request for component (then another registry key).

I did a search in the registry using regedit and found the first key (which
refers to MSInstaller) but the second key was not found.

Hi

Yes, the "Detection of product ... " is the correct entry, but the ID
string following right after "Detection of product" doesn't really
refer to a registry key (even if you found it as a key in registry),
it is the ID that represents a program that have been installed by
Windows Installer.

Below is a VBScript that will create a list that maps product ID's to
the actual program name it represents.

Put it in a text file and save it as e.g. WI_Products.vbs, run it by
double clicking on it. The result will be presented in Notepad.


'--------------------8<----------------------
Const OverwriteIfExist = -1
Const OpenAsASCII = 0

Set oMsi = CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

sFile = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%TMP%") & "\WI_Products.txt"
Set f = oFSO.CreateTextFile(sFile, _
OverwriteIfExist, OpenAsASCII)

On Error Resume Next
For Each sProduct in oMsi.Products
sProdName = ""
sProdName = oMsi.ProductInfo(sProduct, "InstalledProductName")
If sProdName <> "" Then
f.WriteLine sProduct & " " & sProdName
End If
Next
On Error Goto 0
f.Close
oShell.Run "notepad.exe " & """" & sFile & """", 1, False
'--------------------8<----------------------

 

[Guest]

Well, I copied your script (exactly like this:
'--------------------8<----------------------
Const OverwriteIfExist = -1
Const OpenAsASCII = 0

Set oMsi = CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer")
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")

sFile = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%TMP%") & "\WI_Products.txt"
Set f = oFSO.CreateTextFile(sFile, _
OverwriteIfExist, OpenAsASCII)

On Error Resume Next
For Each sProduct in oMsi.Products
sProdName = ""
sProdName = oMsi.ProductInfo(sProduct, "InstalledProductName")
If sProdName <> "" Then
f.WriteLine sProduct & " " & sProdName
End If
Next
On Error Goto 0
f.Close
oShell.Run "notepad.exe " & """" & sFile & """", 1, False
'--------------------8<----------------------

Saved it as WI_Products.vbs, double clicked on it and got a script error:
Line: 27
Char: 1
Error: Expected Statement
Code: 800A0400
Source Microsoft VBScript compilation error.

Did I goof somewhere? Thanks again, very much, for your assistance with
this problem.

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Well, I copied your script (exactly like this:
'--------------------8<---------------------- [snip]
'--------------------8<----------------------

Saved it as WI_Products.vbs, double clicked on it and got a script error:
Line: 27
Char: 1
Error: Expected Statement
Code: 800A0400
Source Microsoft VBScript compilation error.

Did I goof somewhere? Thanks again, very much, for your assistance with
this problem.

Hi

The script is only 24 lines, including the two
"'--------------------8<----------------------" lines.

So what is on line 27?

(and the error is a syntax/compilation error, so it is you that
done something strange here, or goofed as you so nicely put it)