How to fix “The Windows Installer service could not be accessed” error

Posted by Aseem on Thursday, October 30th 2008

30
Oct

Recently, a friend of mine tried to install a program on his Windows Vista machine and the computer gave the blue screen of death error. After he restarted his computer, he tried to run a different program and he got the following message:

The Windows Installer service could not be accessed. This can occur if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed.

If you are getting this error in Vista, here are a few things you can try to fix it!

Method 1 ““ Make sure the Windows Installer service is started

Sometimes, if the Installer service is disabled, you will get this error. You can turn it on by going to Start, then Run and typing in Services.msc.

Then scroll down to Windows Installer and double-click on it. Set the Startup Type to Manual and click Start to start the service.

You can also start the service by going to Start, Run and type in net start MSIServer into the Run box.

Method 2 ““ Delete MSIEXEC with no extension

Another strange thing that can happen is the creation of a second msiexec file in your C:\Windows\system32 directory. By default, there should only be one msiexec.exe file in that directory, but sometimes another one gets created with no extension and a size of 0 KB.

If that is the case, then you should rename the extra msiexec file with a .OLD extension. Once you rename it, then you can restart the Windows Installer service. Again, just go to Services and right click on Windows Installer and choose Restart.

Method 3 ““ Modify Remote Procedure Call Service

Sometimes the issue can be caused by another service called Remote Procedure Call. Go to the Services section again like mentioned above (Start, Run, services.msc) and right-click on Remote Procedure Call (Not the one that says RPC Locator) and choose Properties.

Now click on the Log On tab and under Log on as:, choose Local System Account and tick the Allow this service to interact with the desktop checkbox. Then restart your computer and see if the problem goes away.

If that does not work, choose the This account: radio button and click Browse. Search for “Network Service” and click OK. The password will automatically be filled in for this account, so don’t change it.

Again, restart your computer and see if the problem goes away. Note that if it goes away when you chose Local System Account, just leave it at that setting. Only change it to NT Authority\NetworkService if Local System Account does not work.

Method 4 ““ Reinstall Windows Installer Service

If that does not work, you can download the Windows Installer Service and re-install it! Kind of ironic eh!? Do this if you do not even see the service listed in the Services applet or if nothing else works.

You can download the MSIServer package from WinHelpOnline. Once you download it, unzip it and right-click on the .REG file and click Merge. Click Yes when asked to confirm. This basically adds the required registry keys for the Installer service to work fine.

Method 5 ““ Install the latest Windows Installer version

Finally, you can do a search on Google for “Windows Installer” and download the latest version from Microsoft. This will ensure that you are not running an older version that could be causing conflicts with other software, etc.

Hopefully one of these solutions will fix your problem! If you did it another way, please post a comment letting us know how! Thanks!

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27 Comments Already

annapia Said,

November 8th, 2008 @4:39 pm

Hi, after 4 days of sitting by my computer trying to fix the installer, I finally did it!! Thanks to you and the tip regarding Remote Procedure Call Service.

Thanks again,
Anna

tommy99 Said,

December 26th, 2008 @6:26 am

I get a number or error messages when I am trying to install software. I tried methods 1 and 2 but when I type services.msc into run and gte up services. windows installer isn’t there. i ma really confused and I tried to download windows installer 4.5 and it says that it isn’t a win32 valid application. please I really need help!!!

BbyAnna Said,

December 30th, 2008 @5:10 am

It worked! Thanks a lot!

ninjamomm Said,

April 4th, 2009 @11:15 pm

I have implemented all 5 methods except method 3, but I still get the message that the windows installer service couldn’t be accessed. The only reason I didn’t do method 3 was that the info on the Log On tab is disabled so I can’t modify the information and I can’t find a way to enable it. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit. I am trying to install the WMDC driver update for 64 bit, which I need in order to sync my smartphone to WMDC, but I can’t install it because the windows installer service can’t be accessed. Any guidance would be very much appreciated!

facadesteve Said,

May 22nd, 2009 @5:13 pm

I am in the same position as ninjamomm, my logon tab is also disabled. I can’t download I can’t run a program without the same old error message coming up. I have 3 important downloads stuck they download but I get the error message every time. This is so frustrating and of course nothing on the MS help pages works. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium and of course I can’t use the DVD to fix it because MS didn’t supply one!

Nightwolf67 Said,

May 29th, 2009 @1:53 am

I tried method #3. It didn’t work, and now I can’t figure out how to change it back to the original setting!

cminniect Said,

June 7th, 2009 @8:05 pm

Had the same issues as ninjamomm and facdesteve. Running Vista Home Premium 64 bit and encountered this dreadful error.
FINALLY found a fix that actually worked for me. Follow these steps:
Accessories/RUN
Type in: regedit
Navigate the menu by clicking each of the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CURRENTCONTROLSET
SERVICES
MSIServer

Right click on WOW64 and select ‘Modify’
Change Value Data from 1 to 0
then close this box

Navigate to the Run dialog again (as we started with above)
Type in: services.msc
Scroll down to Windows Installer and STOP the service and then START it again.

Then Reboot your machine.
Hope this works for others. It finally did the trick for me! Good Luck.

payaso_jay Said,

June 18th, 2009 @1:00 am

Same with ninjamomm. i tried all the methods and I still cant update! If anyone knows anything else that works, let me know!

Mrarun Said,

June 24th, 2009 @2:37 am

After MANY HOURS OF SEARCHING AND SWEARING IT WORKS NOW!!! THANKS TO THE RPC CHANGE. I SWITCHED IT FROM THIS ACCOUNT TO LOCAL SYSTEM AND IT WORKED. THANK YOU SOO SOO MUCH. WE MUST SPREAD THIS ARTICLE BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE THIS PROBLEM!

Thank you Aseem!

RickCan Said,

August 16th, 2009 @4:30 pm

Thank you to cminniect this worked! I have been struggling with this one for two days now.

Carl Said,

September 6th, 2009 @12:15 pm

Method 3 worked!! Brilliant thanks a million! Windows Installer is now working!

Ramriez Said,

September 12th, 2009 @10:21 pm

I can’t change PRC to LOCAL SYSTEM. why?

sanche60 Said,

October 15th, 2009 @12:06 am

cminniect THANK YOU!!!!! If you have vista premium 64 and all those other methods didnt work, try cminniect’s trick. I dont know how the hell you figured that out but I want to thank you so much. I was about to throw out this 1500 dollar laptop cuz i couldnt get itunes on it for months, so i couldnt update my iphone. Thanks again. You rock.

MoeyTehr Said,

October 27th, 2009 @12:19 am

Thank you so much, cminniect! After weeks of trying to figure this problem out, I finally got it working.

SaFy Said,

November 6th, 2009 @5:55 am

thanks so much
Method 3
finally worked with me

Dirtynukes Said,

November 18th, 2009 @6:27 pm

Method 3 worked! I love you!

Magil Said,

January 18th, 2010 @3:37 pm

Hi Aseem and all his blog followers,

I read all the steps suggested by Aseem. In this blog many guys said that they followed step# 3 and issue got resolved. I WANT TO INFORM YOU THAT ITS NOT AT ALL RECOMMENDED. By doing this you are actually making your system vulnerable to threats and attacks (that is how the sasser and blaster worm came in the picture). The reason is local system account is most powerfull account (basically it superseeds any other service account in layman’s term) and RPC service is the most important service on any operating System. If this happens then an hacker can write such a program that can easily gets the access of system. If Installer service or any other service starts after making RPC to run on local system then it confirms that there is a permission issue.
To resolve this you need to reset the security database in most of the cases. Please refer to following article for it. We can do this easily on a home machine but if we have server in question than take some considerations.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313222

Thanks
Magil

StanHill Said,

January 26th, 2010 @4:13 pm

I’m getting the 1719 error when trying to install Nikon Transfer. I tried all the methods listed in the number of support.microsoft.com articles. They didn’t help.

I see here some new ideas – e.g. method #3 – but I’m afraid that it would make my computer vulnerable to security attacks, although I have Kaspersky Internet Security protection installed. Plus I’m using Windows XP, not Vista.

I noticed one strange thing regarding msiexec file. I have 7 instances of it, not one! I understand that there is an .old one after using those fixing methods, but why do I have 5 more??? 3 of them are in uninstall folders, which may be OK as I had the windows re-installed about 2 months ago. One is in \prefetch folder, one in \servicepackfiles\i386 and one in system32\dllcache

Is that OK to have so many msiexec? Can it be the reason I’m getting the 1719? I have the latest version of msi – 4.5.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Stan