Software Deployment

MSI causes error when I try to install programs.msi. What error do you get when you try to install other software?

If this were me, I would:
- back up the PC using Ghost, or your favoured imaging software
- Install the latest version of Windows Installer. This ought to have happened already via Windows Update/Microsoft Update or your WSUS process.
- uninstall Excel, if possible.
- If you get a similar error when trying to uninstall, use MSIZap (part of the Windows Installer SDK) to remove all traces of its installation data from the registry.
- If you uninstalled OK, run MSIZap anyway. It may error but that's fine: you then know that your machine knows nothing about any Excel installation! :)
- Re-install Excel

Hello VBScab,

thanks for the fast response.

All these steps I went trough tens of times. Removed Office completely with REVO-Uninstaller, witch leaves nothing of the removed program, and deleted en re-installed MSIEXEC.EXE, MSIHND.DLL, MSI.DLL, used regserver for the EXE, and regsvr32 to register the dll's and exe.
I downloaded the latest WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe and executed that one, no cure.

The message I see when I try to install (or de-install) a msi-program is simply:
Followed by (after Cancel):


witch means:
Cannot get access to the WindowsInstaller-service. This can occur when Windows Installer isn't installed properly. Get into contact with the supporting site.

I also backed up my partition, and replaced the whole Registry of that WindowsXP with a Registry copy I made a year ago, time I didn't have those msi problems. Surprise, Windows worked with that old Registry, but the "Error" whas still there....

All the tricks and advice that were published (and that I could find) on the internet, I tried.

The next I tried was to install an other Clean Install of WindowsXP (slipstreamed with SP3) on an other partition. I installed only a virus scanner and a few tools, and Office XP on that partition. Here ,I don't have the msi-problem. Than I started installing one bij one all the Windows updates (28 pieces of KB954*** to KB960***) that were suggested by Windows Update Service. The Error did not appear. Now I am installing program by program on that Windows, but with 260 programs to go, this can take a while[&:]

Thank you very much for taking the time to put your time in this problem.
I am so glad someone tries to help me with this.

Sincerely,

SoftAid

It's sounding more like a permissions issue. A rebuild should fix that.

This is where VMWare, Virtual PC, VirtualBox and the like are SO valuable. If you ever end up in this situation, you just go back - more or less instantaneously - either to a previous snapshot or to the parent VM/VPC/VBox. Brilliant.

Hello VBScab,
It's sounding more like a permissions issue. A rebuild should fix that.
indeed, that crossed my mind several times. I have VMWare on my PC, but it's to late now to help me. I can put back old Images that I made, but that's not the sollution, as then I loose to much of the install's and configurations I made since. And most important, I would like to find the cure for this kind of trouble.
I have a "free of charge help-site" for the Dutch part of Belgium and the Netherlands, with almost 15.000 members. This msi-problem coms back regulary in our topics, and I cannot help them.

For most people with only a browser and MSN (and a few games) on their PC, RéFormat is no problem. But due to the fact that we try to solve problems for others, we have to install lots of programs.
Thus it isn't an option for me to Format.

What I can try is to do an "In-place" installation on the Windows where I only get the msi-error in Office. On the oldest Windows, the one with the msi-error when I try to install or uninstall msi-programs, an "In-place" installation failed (BSOD after POST)
(Windows encountered problems, and shut down to ....)

I'll keep you informed.
Thanks for now.

[:D] SoftAid [:D]

Hi there,

I did an "In-place" installation of XP-SP3, but the error is still there.
This is on the WinXP partition with the msi-error in the Excel program. I'm running out of ideas...

Greetings,

SoftAid

As I say, I think you have a permissions issue on that machine. Have you tried running ProcMon as you hit the 'Function' button? If anything's missing or wrongly permissioned, you'll see entries like 'NAME NOT FOUND', 'PATH NOT FOUND' or 'ACCESS DENIED'.

Hello VBScab,

I did run ProcMon, and monitored the Excel executions on the moment I hit the Function Tab, or the F1 (Help). I get only "Name not Found" messages. But there are many off them. Some, I could repair, bij copying files from one Office installation to the other (As I have the same Office on the other Windows) but those that come with the RegOpenKey, I don't know how to fix those.

It must be a matter of the Help-files, because the Function Box has connections (link) with the Help-file.
In the "ProcMon list" I can see many RegOpenKey that have NAME NOT FOUND with url or .url or urlname in the search. But I also found many for: HK**\*\Installer\*\9040110900063D11C8EF00054038389C
witch he never finds. (Where * are different paths)

With the filter on "Excel" only, I get tens of thousends of lines that are excecuted, so its pretty hard to get a propper idea what happends there [:(]

Crazy thing is that Word functions perfect.

I think I'll write a little macro that executes OnOpen of the Excel-map, and that hits the OK-button 6 times in a row. That will be the simplyest, but I prefer to find a sollution.

Thank you very much for your help.

SoftAid
Belgium

PS: I can add an Export file from ProcMon, but I dought any is going to read this... [:D][:D][:D]

http://users.skynet.be/fa045814/docs/logfile.xml

what is in your application event viewer after you click through 6 times? what finally resolves the issue? what version of the windows installer does it say you have on your box?

Hello kiptek,

thanks for your help. The version of misexec.exe is 3.1.4001.5512
Fot the moment I realy don't know what action finally resolves the problem. I have ProcMon set filtering on Excel.exe only, and on the fisrt 5 clicks on the OK button of the Error Message ProcMon only produces +/- 30 lines of actions. But when I hit it the sixt time, it produces more than 2000 lines, so I do not see the trees true the busches anymore.
There still are lots of "NAME NOT FOUND" in between those lines, some things seems not to be nessecairy for the application to start. I will spent an other weekend on trying to determinate what the difference is between the unsolved and the solved situation.

Thanks for now, I'll write back soon. I'm reag happy someone cares and listen. Microsoft Helpdesk only proposed me to "Format"[:'(]

SoftAid
Belgium

In the "ProcMon list" I can see many RegOpenKey that have NAME NOT FOUND with url or .url or urlname in the search. But I also found many for: HK**\*\Installer\*\9040110900063D11C8EF00054038389C
witch he never finds. (Where * are different paths)Finding out a little of how Windows works would help you filter out a lot of stuff. For example, knowing that, for many registry values, Windows looks in the HKCU hive first and, if not found, looks in the HKLM hive might help. This is particularly true of the 'Installer' entries.

As Kiptek hints at, there should be an entry in the 'Application' log in Event Viewer which will identify the component ID which is causing the repair to be triggered. Once you have that ID, you can back-track through the Office MSI to locate the actual component which is being repaired. Once you have that, you're well on the way to finding out which file or registry entry is the culprit.

Meanwhile, ProcMon cannot open the PM log you posted. It needs to be in PM's native format, PML.

Hallo VBScab,

thanks for the response. I know that, if I understood how Windows (Installer) works, it would easely leads me to better insight off the problems in Excel. But this is a step higher than my skills[&o]

I do understand some logical things that happends, and I'm able to deduct some of the operations, but not all of them. I'm not that smart....

The last weekend, I tried all possible things I tried before, including a totally reinstallation of Office, after cleaning the register with REVO- uninstaller and manualy, key by key.

Then I made a "Inplace" installation of WindowsXP SP3, and installed Office (full install) again. Nothing changed. So, it's not a fault in installing nor Windows, nor Office.

The Windows Installer is corrupt, but I do not know what to do about it.

The ProcMon logs only tell me that the code to execute the Help-files or the Functions is very simple, only 24 lines of instructions, and there it is.

On the mal-functioning OS it takes thousends of lines before Installer finely generates the 24 lines that execute the Functions.

I put a link to a excel-file where I enclosed the ProcMon files in Excel file, with interrupts on those moments I hit the OK button on the Error-message.

Maybe this is easyer to read.

For now, I have a burn-out, sorry....

Thank you and all the people that tried to help in any way.

It whas nice talking to you.

Theo

SoftAid
Belgium
Link to the Excel-file= http://users.skynet.be/fa045814/temp/MSI-Excel.xls
http://www.oplossing.be

That XLS is completely empty. Just save the ProcMon file as it is, in PML format. Then ZIP it (they can be quite large!) then post it.