Windows Installer Error - Common Causes and Easy Fixes By Logan Albright At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The Windows installer is part and parcel of the Windows matrix, a built in service that has been in all the previous OS incarnations from the 95 edition all those years ago. It was boon to many developers and programmers who were designing programs and games for the Windows environment, making installations and configuration that much easier. Also, because of the Windows installer, which allows a whole host of third party programs to be installed within the OS environment, had allowed for the cutting of costs in designing programs.

An error involving the Windows installer usually occurs when the files are either corrupted or missing, meaning that Windows cannot launch the appropriate system files to install the software. One of the more common causes is when the file that Windows is trying to launch is corrupt, meaning that the data and code is either scrambled or incomplete (a very common scenario when it comes to downloaded software from the internet) and thus cannot be resolved within the system. Also, many users of Microsoft Office may also experience the same thing, especially when they try to install conflicting versions or even multiple-attempt installs. While the causes for the Windows installer error may be many, a few simple solutions can rectify these problems.

One of the ways is to re-register the MSIexec.exe, which is the Windows installer file that can be found on your original Windows CD. While this is a very simplistic method, it can be effective when the problem was due to a bad install of the installer software. More than one third of the cases reported about this common error is due to a bad install of Windows, or simply, a need to update Windows itself.

There is also the drastic option of reformatting your entire computer and reinstalling the operating system all over again. However, if you do not want to go through the hassle of reinstalling your entire operating system, you can also try to re-register the Windows installer. This will require you to go to your system32 folder under Windows in your root folder, opening the registry editor, locating the MSIserver command line under the ‘KEY LOCAL MACHINE’ tag and verifying that the value file and keys show the appropriate and correct values. After this, reboot the computer (but not before backing up your registry) and everything should be alright.

If you want an even simpler way to do this, all you need to do is to get a free and reliable registry cleaner and run a thorough scan of your system. Most of the time, the Windows Installer registered command line is corrupt; the cleaner can detect it and sort it out just with a few simple clicks. It even creates a back up of the registry for you just in case something goes wrong and even allows you to restore when Windows finds a problem with the new settings. These are some of the ways that you can recruit to sort out the Windows Installer problem.

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