Solution: The Windows Installer Service Could Not Be Accessed Error In Windows

When you try to install a program which uses the built in Windows Installer service, it gives the following error:

The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed.
This can occur if you are running Windows in safe
mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly
installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.

windows installer error

This issue may occur in Windows XP or in Windows Vista. The reason behind this error is that sometimes the Windows Installer service gets corrupt due to registry corruptions etc. or simple enough the Windows Installer service is not running at all. There are two fixes that I have found useful for this problem.

Through Run Command:

This is the Microsoft solution which comes in handy because of its ease of use:

  • Log on to your computer as an administrator.
  • Click Start, and then click Run.
  • In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
  • At the command prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister, and then press ENTER.
  • Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.

Through Registry:

This is also a simple trick. Just download the following registry file and double click it. It will ask if you want the information to be added to the registry, just press yes. Now you should be able to install your programs without any problems. If still there’s a problem, restart your system once.
registry add windows installer service
[download id=”137″]


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Comments

55 responses to “Solution: The Windows Installer Service Could Not Be Accessed Error In Windows”

  1. geeek

    Guys, you are wonderful. The reg file helped after several ours of waste! thank you! saved my day.
    Drugelis

  2. julia

    didn’t work. nothing works. did every single thing that i found on the net and nothing did the trick! still cannot install! HELP PLEASE!

  3. qhung

    Your little me are the problem in this, is Search menu to appear, the Search button on the Standard still available, but when you click on it only up to each dog’s (Animate character): cry: Yes not appear to be items you can enter information Search?
    I have not encountered this case never should also not know the history how to find it in group policy but not out, so they only know me with giùm nhé, thanks a lot everyone!

  4. fakhar zaman

    Guys, you are wonderful. The reg file helped after several ours of waste! thank you! saved my day.

  5. Christine

    I wish it had worked, but it didn’t.

  6. Tracey

    Beautiful. Command line commands worked excellently and took 10 seconds. Thanks!!!!!!!!

  7. Conductor

    Thanks a lot!!! It works!!!

  8. carl gulywasz

    absolutely brilliant,simple ,easy and effeiciant.kudos

  9. Suresh Thota

    Thanks alot , its working fine.

  10. daria

    wheres the download link ?pls help

  11. Leandro

    Hi Sanix,
    Thanks a lot!!!
    It worked!!!

  12. daria

    plssss help … there is no download link , where is it? plsssssss

    1. Sanix

      daria, thank you for pointing out. Now all the download links are working. Kindly check again and download the tool you want.

  13. daria

    this is wrighted ([download id=”137″])

  14. daria

    thanx very much , you guys really helped me out , thank youuuuuuuuu again

  15. Tangerine

    The download is an mp3 file…so it didn’t work.

  16. Tom

    Outstanding! Command line commands worked perfectly! Took only seconds! Thanks!!

  17. daria

    hey tangerine , change the extension of the file , delete (mp3) extension to (reg) . then try it again

  18. Nischal Jain

    Thanks a lot. Registry file solved my problem.

  19. Rumki Sarkar

    Thankssssssssssss a lot.

  20. blakeo

    simple and effective, thanks

  21. Nigel

    The registry file worked for me. Thanks a lot!

  22. peter

    Thank you very much! can sleep now!

  23. zoranze

    kool man! thanks a lor! it works great!!!!!!!!!
    that’s the best solution!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  24. danni

    my pc will not let me download anything i an in IE

  25. Rick

    well, i tried everything on microsoft’s web site (several different pages in support dedicated to the issue, but all offering different solutions) and did the two hacks suggested in this forum, but nothing has worked. if anybody has a sure fire solution, i would love to know. interestingly, when doing one of the microsoft remedies, a dialogue box popped up saying that i did not need to do it, as the files were fine and up to date. whatever . . . i would be interested in any other solutions, though, as i am doing a rebuild and have a ton of software to install . . . never had this problem before . . . and i have done about 30 builds from scratch!

  26. sean

    I get garbled text on the link. ???

  27. Sanix

    @sean
    The download link is working perfectly. Can you kindly use a different browser for the download?If it still doesn’t work, please let me know.

  28. RelliK1000

    Thanks
    # At the command prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister, and then press ENTER.
    # Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.
    Works everytime
    BUT why does it seem I have to do it everytime I try to install .msi progs?

  29. unRheal

    While this didn’t work for me, glad it workd for some… There’s a couple of minor issues with it, that probably don’t adversely affect the system running properly, just UI stuff. (I think)
    It downloaded via Firefox v3.5.6 as an HTM file (Restore Windows Installer Service.htm) – plus it was unicode, not sure if that affects anyone. I renamed it to .REG (of course) and double-clicked it to load it to my Registry.. (*after* loading Regedit and going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices and exporting the MSIServer key for backup! – People should do this anyway, just in case!)
    I noticed off the bat that you put:
    “Description”=”@%SystemRoot%\system32\msimsg.dll,-32”
    Which isn’t right, since it’s supposed to be:
    “Description”=”Adds, modifies, and removes applications provided…” etc. etc..
    AKA: It’s supposed to be the text description of the service! So maybe some other variable that *should* be “@%SystemRoot%\…” etc… is not getting set so(?)
    Similarly:
    “DisplayName”=”@%SystemRoot%\system32\msimsg.dll,-27”
    Is not right either, as it’s for Humans to read (just like Description is) – it should be:
    “DisplayName”=”Windows Installer”
    So again I wonder if that string should be getting assigned to some other variable that it’s not getting assigned to…(?)
    That’s all – thanks anyway, I guess I’ll keep looking for what’s up with my system. I’m going to try to find a place to (re)install the stuff – maybe that’ll help(?) Cheers

  30. Kat

    Thanks so much guys. This worked for me.
    Log on to your computer as an administrator.
    Click Start, and then click Run.
    In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
    At the command prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister, and then press ENTER.
    Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.
    This little trick worked well! Thank you soo much. Saved me from
    having to buy a scanner and/or taking it to be fixed.

  31. Candy

    Bullcrap. Link takes me to regcure – not a reg file.

  32. Mikami15

    It works.
    I just downloaded it.
    to Candy: open the link in new tab & copy the url to Internet Download Manager(Add download)..wait till the .reg file size is shown & click download.

  33. Lo

    Hey Mikami, it doesn’t work for me… how do i download the registry file? when i click on it i’m being diverted to http://quad-cleaner.com/v3/?PID=6366bc85-9bc0-458c-9ea3-d2f2fbd9d2e7
    Can you pls let me know the step by step to download it?
    Thanks

  34. Sanix

    Lo, you can use any other web browser other than Firefox ( preferably IE) to download this file. Firefox doesn’t seem to associate the file with a program correctly.

  35. TriniKid

    Thanks alot guys, this really helped !!

  36. Alvi

    wait, whats supposed to happen after you type:
    Type msiexec /regserver, and then press ENTER.
    nothing happened for me. PLEASE HELP

  37. JUN

    WorkED!!!!

  38. Bao Nguyen

    very usefull. Thank so much

  39. Bao Nguyen

    Thank so much. Very useful

  40. Bao Nguyen

    Thank so much. Welcome to my Website. Link to Tin Hoc tre Viet Nam

  41. Bebede

    Thanks a lot, this FIX MY PROBLEM AT ALL ….

  42. Denis

    Guys thank you so much!I will recommend you to all of my friends,ty 1 billion times!

  43. Davey

    Tried, this first time didn’t work I had written down wrong word
    came back to see If I had the steps right! Bingo I had written down
    as my second command line – msiexec/register wrong
    second try after I came back to look, what I had did incorrectly
    I found my mistake second Command line is msiexec/regserver
    Every thing is back to normal.
    Thank you, so very much Davey

  44. Jeff

    Didn’t work. The Pareto software is just like any other Registry cleaner and is not going to fix the Installer service.

  45. Beate Sæternes

    Worked perfectly. this error was giving me a headache and finally i stumbled onto this solution. 🙂 Thanks a bunch for the help.
    *Bows*

  46. Outlawz

    commands worked
    100%
    thanks a mil

  47. spencer

    is this Ok to use on windows 7?

    1. Sanix

      @Spencer
      The commands do work in Windows 7.

  48. spencer

    I’ve tried them plus the other solutions put forward my MS but no joy

  49. Chris

    Of all the attempts and complicated steps here’s a simple fix that worked for me-
    HERE IS THE FIX THAT WORKED FOR ME : Start, then Run, then type regedit Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENT CONTROL SET\SERVICES\MSIserver\WOW64 Right click on WOW64, then select Modify Set Value Data to 0 (mine was set at 1) and Base should be Hexadecimal Close everything, reboot, and see if you can uninstall or reinstall.

  50. Marisa

    This worked for me, could not install my updates but after the fix i was able to, thanx