Please help "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed"

My system has Windows Vista 64bit. I am facing a error and I am not able to troubleshoot the same. I was removing some software to make the system boot a bit more faster. There various things installed by my brother which I cleaned up. But the uninstallation is stucked on Visual C++ 2005 Re-distributable. When I was trying to remove this thing I am getting a error that Windows Installer can't be accessed. I had restarted my system and then started the same process again. But still the same error appeared. How to fix that.

I found a kb article that has number of solutions to fix the issue. I had provided the link below. Click on the same and read the steps provided there. You can also manually download and re-install the Installer. The error appeared because of its corruption. The article below provides you the same solution.
Error "Windows Installer service could not be accessed" occurs when you try to add or remove a program in Windows XP or Windows Server 2003

It can be fixed if you re-register Windows installer one more time. It is a common issue. There are ample articles that you can refer on web to find the appropriate solution for the same. There are some files which are needed to be restored. The files are msi.dll, msiexec.exe and msihnd.dll. This three files if replaced the issue will be over. It is located in the System32 folder of Windows directory. To make this changes you need admin access or else the same will not work.

You can replace those files, but it is not worth doing the same. I will recommend you to run Windows update once. There are number of solutions that I had gone with. I had modified the files manually by downloading those dll files. But still it did not worked. Microsoft has mentioned to remove the installer first. But from where it can be removed. I cannot see it inside Un-install program. You have to also disable UAC for a while at it irritates a lot while making this changes. I am looking for some .exe type fix that can directly make changes without going in Windows directory.

There is no hotifx available for that. If you want to gain a temporary permission of System32 folder then you can follow my steps. You can make those changes in account but for that you need the admin login details. Rightclick on the System32 folder and then click on Properties. Now go to Permission tab and then add a user there. You can remove that if not needed. Somehow working in limited account can also be the reason of this error. Ample of actions are restriction when you are not logged in admin account.

First of all Windows Update cannot help you much in that. If you are going with manual process you will need to mess with the permission settings or else there will nothing you can do much. First I will recommend you to make those changes manually. There are dll files listed above. Download them and replace them under System 32 folder. Instead of changing the folder permission, login in admin account and simply copy paste them. Another thing you can do is running a system check. It is a integrity scan that will verity the system files and replace which are not proper. You might need Windows Installation disc for that. Windows has a inbuilt system file checker tool that does the job. SFC in built utility that can be initiated through cmd. The command for that is sfc /scannow. It is capable of fixing ample of Windows error. I had faced a issue with IE6 update and fixed with sfc /scannow.

At some point it prompt for Windows disc to replace some system files. You must keep your disc ready. System file checker is a powerful and nice utility that is available quiet easily. It saves a lot time is making those manual changes. When you are running this right click on cmd and choose run as administrator. Second thing you can go with is Startup Repair using Windows installation disc. This is another beneficial options available and it is much easier to use also. Just boot your system from the Vista installation disc and click on Repair. Click on Startup Repair and wait for a while. The last thing you can do is trying to troubleshoot the issue in Safe Mode. You can access that by pressing F8 on restart. It will work quiet better.

I am struggling with this error and it is quiet long now. I had not able to get the fix for that. First of all I am not able to set user permissions here. I do not want to give admin access to anyone. We have two system at our office in which one is getting this error. We had printed some articles which has similar methods that are mentioned here. I am trying to setup the permission of System32 folder to an user account, but when I click on Apply I receive a error saying that Access is Denied. And the weird thing is that, when I try to do that in Administrator account I am also getting the same error. It looks there is some virus in my computer which has did this and because of which I am not able to make changes. The cmd method has gone well till yet, but the installer issue is not completely solved.

The Repair stuff will only work on Windows XP not on Vista. The installer used by Vista is not available for download also. You can give system restore a try. It might restore the old files and fix the issue. Also try to run Windows update if possible. There are some number of kb article available on web that offer you a simple and clean process of configuring installer error. But to some place it is not at all intact. The error is same windows installer service can't be accessed. In safe mode I had run sfc scan and installed a registry repairer software. I do not know how this work, but my issue is solved.

I have a new computer that came with Vista at 64x. Could not get iTunes or any other program to load or uninstall. Tried everything that I could think of or find on these forums. This is what finally worked for me:

1. At Start type "regedit"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Services
MSIServer

right click on WOW64, select "Modify"
Change Value data from "1" to "0"

2. At "Start" type "run"
type "services.msc"
go to "Windows Installer" and stop and start the program.

3. Reboot computer.

Hope this helps someone else.

leokev
what you suggest seems so random!!!! i have tried everything. This is a brand new computer. HP could not help. (they tried) I tried, looked at a lot of web pages, downloaded a lot of "free" software. NOTHING works!!

Except what you said to do. FANTASTIC!! But what did you do? and how on earth did you come up with such a repair. In any case, I am SOOOOOOOOO happy to have it fixed. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I am having the same problem. The only thing is I don't have WOW64 under the msiserver folder. What should I do?

Thanks!

I had to register and let you know that your very easy to follow instructions posted on 04/18/2009 fixed my very frustrating problems with the windows installer!!!!

Windows installer problem is very common. In Windows XP I always download that from web and run it. It worked fine. But in Windows Vista 64bit the issue is bit more complicated. Most of the KB articles based on this ask to re-install this software. Sometime this service is disabled because of which you get the error. You can make it work again by restarting the service through Control Panel > Administrative Tool > Services. You can right click and set the launch on automatic. Reboot your system and check back.

I am also getting the message "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if the
Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel
for assistance." And my windows updates won't install.

Like Phil88 I am running Vista on a 32 bit system. I have spent days searching online for a fix and haven't found anything to work.

Does anyone know how to cure this on a 32 bit system?

Leokev,

Your solution did the trick!! Thanks, we've been ignoring the update for a long time.

Leokev's solution:

1. At Start type "regedit"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Services
MSIServer

right click on WOW64, select "Modify"
Change Value data from "1" to "0"

2. At "Start" type "run"
type "services.msc"
go to "Windows Installer" and stop and start the program.

3. Reboot computer.

Leokev my man! You are like a saint - the solution worked and it was nice and easy: Thanks

Have spent the last 6 hours trawling through solutions for this problem.

:)