Error "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed" in Windows Vista

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

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

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

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

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72 Comments

andrea

said this on Sunday, November 1st 2009 3:24 pm

I tried this, but when I change it to manual, and try to start it, the load bar thing goes a bit green, and then gives me this error; windows installer service on local computer started and then stopped. some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs. Whatttt.
Amrita

said this on Sunday, October 18th 2009 4:21 pm

THANK YOU!!!!! i have struggled with this issue since my last reinstall, and it was common to all the 3 vista machines in the house…merging the given reg key was the only thing that worked – i had tried probably everything out there on the net…unregister/register, installing msi 4.5, renaming msiexec,…everything.
Again, thank you very much!
ODIBI JOHN I

said this on Thursday, October 8th 2009 1:15 pm

thanks, i was having problem in installing software, error massage like window installer service coukd not be aiccessed and i was trouble.so i come in to this site and followed the instruction,its work for me kudo to you
Steve

said this on Tuesday, October 6th 2009 1:24 am

Mrarun
Thank you so much!! Your the greatest!! I knew that it was a registry key issue and sure thing that was the problem because everything else was fine including window module installer. I just felt with the corrupt key in the registry and being able to replace it with a new key would work. So trying MSISERVER.ZIP worked for me!! Again thank you so much for sharing your gift for computer issues with us and me!!!

Best Regards
Steve
katie

said this on Sunday, October 4th 2009 3:51 pm

Thank you so much. Have been wading through forums for ages and this is the first solution that actually seems to have worked! Thank you!
Alex

said this on Thursday, September 17th 2009 12:37 am

Thomas, i have to agree with u. These guys saved me :D Thank you very much.
Thomas

said this on Monday, September 14th 2009 10:29 am

MSISERVER.ZIP worked for me after hours of trying every solution i could ,,, thank you very much ,,,, it very refreshing to know there’s still individuals who offer a legitimate solution
adam

said this on Monday, August 3rd 2009 3:38 am

when i go to services, find windows installer and make it manual it all goes well, BUT when i click start is says ‘error 109, the pipe has ended’.
plz help with this as i cant fix with system restore because that doesnt work.
PLZ REPLY
Amir

said this on Monday, July 13th 2009 9:47 pm

when clicking on merge a note pad is opening and nothing happens!
Mrarun

said this on Wednesday, June 24th 2009 12:19 pm

If your still having problems after Re-Registering, Re-installing and adding the Reg files etc then this is the link for you

http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-fix-the-windows-installer-service-could-not-be-accessed-error/

If you don’t want to read basically right click the RPC service (a dependency of windows installer) and go to Log On. If your log on is on Local system account change it to this account and vice versa. Mine was on this account and I changed it to Local and it worked!