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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27 Comments

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  1. David Rooney
    said this on Monday, October 4th 2010 6:48 pm

    I ended up contacting Microsoft and paying $49 to have them guide me through reinstalling the Operating System. Although expensive, the representative was professional, courteous and the solution was effective.

  2. Nick Shimmin
    said this on Saturday, October 2nd 2010 3:44 am

    hi, i’ve got this problem after just adding Vista SP2 to my computer and none of these fixes work. any ideas?

  3. Josh
    said this on Friday, September 24th 2010 2:22 am

    Thanks for the script. Made short work of a lingering problem.

    Thanks again!

  4. David Rooney
    said this on Sunday, July 18th 2010 2:02 am

    I am unable to extract the file specified from the downloaded file.

    The downloaded file is being saved without any file extension although the Save As dialog box does specify the file type as ZIP file. Windows seems to think it’s a Microsift Word documnet (based on the icon used for the file). I do not have MS Word available on this machine.

    When I Right Click on the downloaded file there is now menu choice of Extract or anything similar.

    Can you provide any ideas on how I can extract and merge the msiserver.reg data?

    I’m running Internet Explorer version 8 on Windows Vista SP2.

    Thanks

  5. Parke
    said this on Sunday, May 9th 2010 4:54 am

    Thank you! This solved my problem! :D

  6. Michael Chevalier
    said this on Thursday, April 22nd 2010 3:26 am

    Thanks, I too used this remedy in my Windows 7 64bit Ultimate.

  7. govind
    said this on Saturday, March 20th 2010 9:38 pm

    thanks a lot t workied with win 7

  8. Pablo Villazon
    said this on Wednesday, March 3rd 2010 6:25 pm

    Thanks it works.

  9. Dhanvanthri
    said this on Friday, February 19th 2010 2:31 am

    Ramesh Srinivasan YOU’RE GOOD!

  10. mas
    said this on Monday, December 28th 2009 7:46 am

    Hey Mrarun I really don’t know what to call you!!!
    the link you have given is a the most complete sorce of knowledge how to solve installer problem,there are five tricks.
    fortunatly the forth one solved the problem.

    thank you my friend.you survived me.

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