Having trouble with Windows installer service

This was noticed after first getting error messages from the office assistant when opening a Microsoft Word document. The error message became annoying so I thought about uninstalling and reinstalling my Word program and found out that I couldn't. I tried updating the windows installer and couldn't do that either.

The first error message pertaining to the office assistant was: There was trouble starting the Office Assistant, would you like to reinstall it?

If I selected yes, nothing happened and the message disappeared. If no was selected, the error message disappeared.

After trying to uninstall Office I received the error message: The Windows installer service could not be accessed. This could happen if you are running in safe mode (which I'm not) or if the windows installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.

I have Windows XP and Office 2000. Also, when trying to reinstall Office 2000 and repair it, the software would open and show files but wouldn't go through the installation process. I'm hoping after googling this problem to death, that someone on here can help me.

 

OK, right off the bat a question. After doing the first step in command prompt(msiexec.exe/unregister), nothing happens. Shouldn't I get a black prompt page or do I go to the next step as I did in the first step and enter msiexec /regserver and click enter?

 

Never mind, I messed up.

 

OK, I finally finished the procedure. It didn't change my problem but it did make my computer 10 times slower to boot up. I did a system restore and got things back to somewhat normal. I will add, that when I got to the final step, the place I was to check was already checked. I unchecked it and checked it again, clicked apply and you already know the outcome.

 

You will probably have to do a repair install as the Major pointed out in his post if the steps did not resolve the problem. Not sure if this will work but have you tried installing v4.5 of the installer.

First do the following in a command prompt.

cd \windows\system32
ren msi.dll msi.old
ren msihnd.dll msihnd.old
ren msiexec.exe msiexec.old

Then download and install the following.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=8483 Yours would be the last on the list. Create a restore point before doing this.

 

Thanks tgell, I'll give it a look.

 

Well I tried your command prompt procedure tgell but it didn't like it. It said it couldn't find the first line. I had already downloaded and tried to install the 4.5 update earlier but thought I'd try it again anyway. This time I disabled my spyware program and my firewall and while not being able to completely install it, it allowed me to repair my Office program. The office assistant nuisance message has been remedied and things are now back to normal. Thanks to all for your help. Now to work on my system network problem but that's another post.