Windows Installer Cannot Be Accessed

As of a few days ago, I got the message "Windows Installer Serivce cannot be accessed" when trying to uninstall programs while trying to get rid of a malware issue on a Vista HP 32bit machine.

After taking care of the malware issue in the "Malware" forum, I was told that this was the best place to ask for help in solving the windows installer issue. I've checked the version and it seems to be up to date, along with a few other fixes online, but nothing seems to be helping the problem.

Right now, I get the error when trying to reinstall iTunes. I went through the uninstall steps from their website and now when installing it, I get the error above.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 

There are programs that can fix that...

but you can try this... i quickly did a google search for you..

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346


hope that helps... i forget what kind of programs or maybe its a command line thing to fix that.. but ill leave that for someone else.. meanwhile you can try that fix by microsoft..



Edit.. Sry i just realized your running vista... looking right now for a vista fix of that...

 

Actually... according to several sources... that will work... ignore that its for windows xp.

Works on vista and win 7 apparently.. hope it works.

 

Hello again,

Tried that fix again, but still the same result.

When trying to install iTunes, it either comes up with that error right away or will get about 70% through the installation and then come up with that error and cause iTunes to no configure correctly.

Any other ideas?

 

my other idea would simply try system restore...

Start.. All Programs.. Accessories.. System Tools.. System Restore


pick a date right before this problem occurred.. note if it says you installed something or modified something and if it works it might be connected to whatever you modified/installed. All your files should still be there after the restore if something is missing you can always restore back to where it was

or backup any files that are important to you not in your my documents folder...

 

I think that might have been a great option, but during the malware removal, the last steps were to toggle system restore. I just finished that process on the forum yesterday so there's not any restore points I can go back to.

I found some people that had success with copying keys from other working vista machines and importing them to this one, but I first need to find a vista machine I can grab those keys off of.

 

So, toggling off system restore deletes any previous restore points before you started the malware removal??? Well, that stinks lol... I have to go soon so I will leave this to others...

GL....

 

Hi crunch, if you download the default registy zip file from Blackviper, extract the *.reg file and run it, it'll set your Windows Services to default. Take care to choose the correct file for your exact version of Vista.

Reboot and test.

 

Unreal!

I wish I found this a few days ago! LOL!

Thanks so much for your help, it did the trick. I tried installing a few different files and they all worked perfectly.

Thanks again!

 

No problem