Error “the Windows Installer Service Could Not Be Accessed” In Windows Vista

© Ramesh Srinivasan | Windows Vista | 20th March 2008

When you try to install a program which uses Windows Installer in a Windows Vista computer, you may receive the following error.

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.

This error may occur even though Windows is already in normal mode.

Resolution

Start the Windows Installer service

  1. Click Start, type Services.msc and press {ENTER}
  2. Double-click Windows Installer
  3. Set the Startup type of Windows Installer to Manual
  4. Click Start to start the service. Note down the error message if any.
  5. Click OK.

Windows Installer Registry Fix

If the above steps do not help or if the Windows Installer service is not listed in the Services applet, follow these steps:

  1. Download msiserver.zip and save it to Desktop.
  2. Unzip the file and extract msiserver.reg to the Desktop.
  3. Right-click msiserver.reg and choose Merge.
  4. Click Yes when asked for confirmation.
  5. Restart Windows.

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72 Comments

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  1. Ben
    said this on Sunday, September 28th 2008 5:21 pm

    Sounds cool for all you vista boys but i got the problem on XP.

    Its got service pack 3, the installer unregister and reregister command line fix does nothing and i cant even install the windows clean up utility to uninstall the installer.

    Would be great to find some command lines to do it but even thats a battle. Any ideas guys, even though it kinda off the subject of vista?

  2. Rod
    said this on Saturday, September 6th 2008 8:57 pm

    I have Vista with MS Office Outlook 2003 which crashed and then I got the above Windows Installer error message when I tried to reinstall. Mine was set to manual and changing to automatic had no effect. I contacted Dell support (it’s still under warranty) and they used the disable setting, then rebooted, went back in and set to manual > start and it worked. Reinstalled OL and now working fine. I hope this helps

  3. alex
    said this on Thursday, September 4th 2008 7:47 am

    I got the error 3, the path could not be found, can anyone help me?

  4. Jordan
    said this on Wednesday, September 3rd 2008 9:58 am

    Thank you! This was very easy and solved my problem. Good work.

  5. rashad
    said this on Monday, August 18th 2008 6:05 am

    http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/windows-installer.html
    I downloaded window installer 4.5. it works perfectly for the moment.Ensure that u download the one for vista.

  6. rashad
    said this on Wednesday, July 30th 2008 7:30 pm

    tried both of these opinion and it,still not workin.Is there any other ssolution to this problem.

  7. Me
    said this on Saturday, July 26th 2008 7:27 am

    Thank you! I tried EVERYTHING and your solution finally worked! The “Windows Installer” wasn’t listed for me, so I followed the second set of directions and it worked! You’re the best!

  8. acil
    said this on Thursday, July 17th 2008 8:02 pm

    it’s still not working for me please helpe me i really don’t know what to do

  9. Michael
    said this on Friday, June 6th 2008 7:55 am

    Solved :-) you are great

  10. Masoud
    said this on Monday, April 28th 2008 6:41 am

    Wow, Wow, Wow,

    Many thanks indeed

    I have been seeking for a long time to solve this complicated problem, eventually it solved.

    My complicated issue has been solved by your efforts.

    Thank you too much

    Elsharif

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