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Vista – Windows installer service could not be accessed

Posted by chelfers | Posted in Computers, Windows Fixes | Posted on 06-12-2009

Tags: , , ,

2

*facepalm*

What a mini nightmare this turned out to be, but after an hour of unsuccessful googled fixes we have a winner! Here is a brief list of what I tried and then the one that worked and made the most sense; sorry I don't have post-backs to where the information came from, and I do not take credit for any of these fixes.

Attempt 1

  • Boot into safemode ( f8 when restarting the computer )
  • Click Start, then click run ( or hit windows key + r ), then type cmd and click ok
  • Type in the following:

    • %windir%/system32/msiexec.exe /unregister
    • %windir%/syswow64/msiexec.exe /unregister
    • %windir%/system32/msiexec /regserver
    • %windir%/system32/msiexec /regserver
  • Reboot and try your install again

Attempt 2 - Little more advanced, please don't screw up your system

  • Click Start, then click run ( or hit windows key + r ), then type regedit and click ok
  • Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer\Enum]
  • The view pane should look like this:

    "0"="Root\\LEGACY_MSISERVER\\0000"
    "Count"=dword:00000001
    "NextInstance"=dword:00000001
  • If it looks similar right click Enum entry in the left pane tree and select delete
  • Reboot and try your install again

Attempt 3 - Little bit more advanced, be careful!

  • Click Start, then click run ( or hit windows key + r ), then type regedit and click ok
  • Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer]
  • Look for the key name DisplayName and make sure that the value is set as C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\msiexec.exe /V
  • If you change it reboot

Attempt 4 - this worked for me

- Click Start, then click run ( or hit windows key + r ), then type regedit and click ok
- Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer]
- Look for the key name WOW64, double click it and change the "Value data" to 0
- Reboot

In attempt 4, the WOW64 key value of 1 tells the installer to only deal with 32-bit installers and error on the rest, by changing this to 0 the system is now open to install 64-bit apps ( hopefully ) with less headaches.

Hope this helps someone!

Comments (2)

Thanks! I was only finding solutions 1-3 like you. Only 64bit apps won't install. I knew it has something to do with that registry group. Big thanks for posting this.

Glad it worked for you!

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