Revenge of "Windows Installer could not be accessed"
Whenever I try to install a program, my computer (Windows XP SP2) says that the Windows Installer Service can't be accessed.
I had this problem before, and after doing everything the internet suggested, I eventually got fed up and did a reinstall of Windows.
Now, after I reinstalled, everything worked fine. I could install things no problem. And then I decided I wanted to try and move over my old "Documents and Settings" folder since I wanted to retain all my music and photos and so forth.
Well, I booted into a disk of NTFS4DOS, and renamed the folders. After I did this, the computer booted with all of my old settings, and My Documents folder was as it was before the reinstall, but some programs (like Opera) were broken. I changed the folder names back. So I was sort of back to where I was after the clean install. After this, I booted into Ubuntu, and copied the contents of the My Documents folder to an external drive, booted into Windows, copied the files over, and then the problem started up again.
I did everything outlined <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346" target="_blank">on Microsoft's site</a>, like I did before, I verified the files are in the right place.
I'm not sure what else to do. I want to retain my old files, and I don't want to reinstall Windows again. I speculate that it has to be a virus or something because simply moving the files around shouldn't have affected the system files, or the registry. But I've scanned with Avast!, including a boot-time scan, and that turned up nothing. I'm going to run a chkdsk tonight, and see if that fixes anything (since before the reinstall I resized the main partition with PartitionMagic 8, and I think that might have affected some other files, since I have some mp3s that won't play now).
Ideas?
I had this problem before, and after doing everything the internet suggested, I eventually got fed up and did a reinstall of Windows.
Now, after I reinstalled, everything worked fine. I could install things no problem. And then I decided I wanted to try and move over my old "Documents and Settings" folder since I wanted to retain all my music and photos and so forth.
Well, I booted into a disk of NTFS4DOS, and renamed the folders. After I did this, the computer booted with all of my old settings, and My Documents folder was as it was before the reinstall, but some programs (like Opera) were broken. I changed the folder names back. So I was sort of back to where I was after the clean install. After this, I booted into Ubuntu, and copied the contents of the My Documents folder to an external drive, booted into Windows, copied the files over, and then the problem started up again.
I did everything outlined <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346" target="_blank">on Microsoft's site</a>, like I did before, I verified the files are in the right place.
I'm not sure what else to do. I want to retain my old files, and I don't want to reinstall Windows again. I speculate that it has to be a virus or something because simply moving the files around shouldn't have affected the system files, or the registry. But I've scanned with Avast!, including a boot-time scan, and that turned up nothing. I'm going to run a chkdsk tonight, and see if that fixes anything (since before the reinstall I resized the main partition with PartitionMagic 8, and I think that might have affected some other files, since I have some mp3s that won't play now).
Ideas?
Comments
I vote Monse replies in this thread though, damn his dodgy software firm! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
i demand Monse action!
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services>Scroll down to the bottom and look for Windows installer>Start the service manually.
Try this: (Some words may not be the correct ones, sorry I have the german version here. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />)
Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services>Scroll down to the bottom and look for Windows installer>Start the service manually.
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A faster way of doing the same thing is go to Run > services.msc. I think he said in the previous thread that this didn't help him though.
So, yeah, I decided not to deal with it.
Now onto a new project! Making Grub boot from a firewire drive.
where is that old bugger anyway ?
i demand Monse action!
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Eh? You kids get off of my lawn!
Based on symptoms and that the issue came back after coping your profile back, there was something munged up in the local settings or application data sections of your profile (it caches stuff about MSI-related personalizations if I recall). If KB articles or the intarweb don't help, using Process Monitor (http://www.microsoft.com/sysinternals) is a great way to diagnose where an app is reading or writing data, and determine which files need to be examined or yanked temporarily.
Sorry I didn't read this sooner. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> Always feel free to ping me at ned_pyle<REMOVE>@hotmail.com as well (I try to check it every coupla days).
That football is MINE now, I warned you about that thing!