Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable

I am having a problem playing a new game (Bad Company 2) and it seems to be related to the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable. It starts an install for the file, has an error, and fails.

My question is - How do you remove this program? It is on the Add/Remove programs list (actually, there are 3 versions) but I cannot remove them, I get an msiexec.exe error. I tried to download the program from windows update, but it fails to download from there as well.

Any thoughts?

(Btw, I have Windows XP Pro)

 

g'day the exact error code could be of use to those who may be able to help.have you tried to remove them with revo uninstaller " http://majorgeeks.com/Revo_Uninstaller_d5706.html ".once uninstalled and cleaned out try going to the windows/software distributions folder and delete the contents of the download folder and try the Microsoft download site again.
hope this helps good luck.

 

I am not sure what error code you would need, it just says "Installer stopped prematurely", "Application has encountered a fatal error" and gives the "msiexec.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close".

Revo appears to use the built-in uninstaller, which isn't working, so it doesn't seem to help either.

 

Try Method 1
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555175
to see if that stops the error you are seeing.

If that doesn't work, then I guess you can try all the items listed. Hopefully one of those will fix the installer.

 

Just tried it, no effect unfortunately.

Thanks though.

 

g'day give this a try " http://majorgeeks.com/Windows_Installer_CleanUp_Utility_d4459.html "
it won't remove the actual program files but it will remove the corrupted registry entries and the installer for those programs allowing you to reinstall them again.
good luck

 

I get the same error when I run that utility, the "msiexec.exe has encountered a problem..."

When I click show details, here is what it says:

szAppName : msiexec.exe szAppVer : 3.1.4001.5512 szModName : msi.dll
szModVer : 3.1.4001.5512 offset : 0016b093

 

Here's something useful! This error text is saying that it is faulting on msi.dll. There are later versions of this file; I myself have the same version in a service pack installer, but version 4.5.6001.22299 is the live version I'm using.

I would make backups, a system restore point, and try updating Windows. This should bring you to the latest version, at which point you can try your operations again.

 

I just updated Windows yesterday, although today there were a few additional updates (must not of been available until I did the prior updates).

One strange thing though... I cannot install the .net framework update, either of them actually. They are named -

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 and .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update for .NET versions 2.0 through 3.5 (KB951847) x86

and

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 Security Update for Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP (KB974417)

They both fail on install. Could this possibly be related?

 

Probably so. If I recall correctly, they both use the Microsoft Installer (msi).

I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's try the simple things first before replacing the file. Let's try re-registering (description in link) the file.

To do so, please do the following:

1. Hit windows key + r (or click Start --> Run)
2. In the 'Run' dialog, type 'regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\msi.dll' (without the quotes)
3. Press enter (or click the 'OK' button)

What sort of response do you receive?

 

It said it succeded.

Btw, thanks for helping me out with this (you too iwunderdownunder) I really appreciate it.

 

Excellent. Not that I expect this changes anything, but can you remove Visual C++ Redistributable now? </optimism>

If not, and if we are still getting the same error message relating to this msi.dll file (please say if the error message changes), we will have to replace it with a known good version.

If that's the case, and you have an installation disk, we can expand msi.dll from the disk using Recovery Console, and then re-apply our Windows Updates (as this should take you back in versions)

If it is not the case, or if you do not have an installation disk, we will have to come up with another plan of attack.

 

I get the exact same error.

I do have a disk, I will look at the recovery console later tonight.