Need help with a BS M$ problem

[Reschke]

Here is the deal. Practically every day I get this problem that says "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running Windows in safe mode, or the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance."

So I did a little searching and found my error message on the MS Knowledge Base. The bold text below does occur on Windows XP with Service Pack 2 on my system. The only work around I have been able to do is to go into services.msc and manually start the service whenever I install anything such as Adobe Reader onto this system. If someone has an idea on how to fix this please let me know.

SYMPTOMS
After you upgrade to Windows Installer version 2.0, the Windows Installer Service may not start, and you may receive the following error message:
The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running Windows in safe mode, or the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.
NOTE: This behavior does not occur in the following products:
•   Microsoft Windows XP
•   Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
•   Microsoft Windows 98

I am trying a few troubleshooting methods that are listed on the M$ help and support boards. So far the first two haven't done the trick now its on to unistalling the service with the uninstall tool provided here on the MS knowledge base.

[ebgb]

sounds like a user mode problem, like you're not logged in with admin priviliges??   a guess

[Reschke]

I only have two accounts on this system. One for me (admin) and its pw protected with info she has no idea about. The other account is for her business and is similarly pw protected. As soon as the spare cash pops up there will be a kick butt "server" here in the house with my system and this one becoming hers for her business only.

[StarOfAfrica2]

Hey Reschke!

Technically, you should have 3 accounts.  Your user account (which probably has "admin" privileges), and your second user account for her.  The third account is the actual Administrator account.  You only access it when you go in through safe mode (or at least thats the only way I know of to get into it).

If you dont have this, or it got deleted somehow, perhaps that is your problem?  Even the user account with "admin" privs isnt as complete as the actual Administrator account (at least I dont think so, I've never really had a need to test that).

[Kev367th]

Try changing the "Always Install With Elevated Privileges" to enabled in your Local Security Policy.
Can be found in the Control Panel/Administrative Tools folder.

[Reschke]

That account is already in place when I run in Safe mode. I couldn't locate the place in that folder that you were talking about Kev. Should it be immediately visible? I have never gone through that screen other than checking just now.

[JB66]

Just a thought...

Under start ->run ->services.msc

Have you checked to see if windows installer has been set to manual or disabled?

[JB66]

nm...didn't read thepost completely

[Reschke]

With the installation of Service Pack 2 the DCOM service was set to disabled...not sure how or why but it was and I really don't care.

It turns out that after finding information on a totally unrelated topic it ended up being a useful thread I was reading. CNET MS Office Forum; in this forum the originator of the thread was having the same troubles as I was having. Apparently after he went through and started going over services that were disabled instead of enabled he found one that caused the Windows Installer service errors. So far I have installed four programs that I know were ones I had to manually start the service. While it wasn't that huge of a problem it was a good size inconvenience to my lazy butt. Lets see if it really does work over the long haul but early indications are looking good.

[Kev367th]

Nice job.
Good to know XP SP2 is still causing problems lol. Think I'll stick to Windows 2000.