What is inprogressinstallinfo.ipi?

Whenever I try to install any MSI file on a Windows 10 machine, it stops and complains with the following error message (pasted here from the logs using msiexec /l*vx ...):

MSI (s) (74:E0) [21:35:57:077]: Note: 1: 2203 2: C:\Windows\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi 3: -2147287008

Error 2203. Database: C:\Windows\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi. Cannot open database file. System error -2147287008.

I presume the cause is an uninstall which crashed and didn't clean up the inprogressinstallinfo.ipi file.

What is this inprogressinstallinfo.ipi file, and is it safe to delete?

If anyone is coming to this question, I believe anti-virus software stops you from deleting the file so you have to boot into safe mode to delete it. You might also have to stop the Windows Installer service, I will post an edit to this question on how to delete this file if the community says it is safe to delete.

Bob Mortimer

Posted 2018-04-11T21:19:35.143

Reputation: 103

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/windows-installer-internal-error-2203/ef289a19-a749-49ff-96ba-b269101e2271 – None – 2018-04-11T21:25:39.673

Post that possible solution into an answer – CaldeiraG – 2018-04-11T21:26:59.093

1Been there, done that - I've tried the following: i) Rebooting (!) ii) unregister/reregister Windows Installer iii) Using Accesschk to check permissions in the %TEMP% folder iv) checking the Windows Installer service is running. No luck. – Bob Mortimer – 2018-04-11T21:29:18.737

I've resolved the issue be renaming inprogresinstallinfi.ipi to be .old and msi's are now installing fine.... in the C:\Windowa\Installer\inprogressinfo.ipi location perhaps. – Pimp Juice IT – 2018-04-11T21:29:55.080

@PimpJuiceIT I have seen that post too (although antivirus is preventing me deleting it), it seemed to work for him but are we sure it is OK? – Bob Mortimer – 2018-04-11T21:30:27.277

1Do you have system backups? If so then I'm sure it's OK – Pimp Juice IT – 2018-04-11T21:31:02.253

1I'm hoping someone with a deep understanding of Windows Installer internals can confirm it is OK, otherwise I will post my experiences when I try to delete – Bob Mortimer – 2018-04-11T21:32:06.217

For posterity, the following also didn't work: v) the Microsoft fixit vi) sfc /scannow. YMMV – Bob Mortimer – 2018-04-11T21:36:13.713

1You have provided two vital bits of information but make no reference to that information in your question. A comment isn’t enough – Ramhound – 2018-04-11T21:46:30.207

have you tried temporarily renaming the file to .old ? – Raghu Ranganathan – 2018-04-12T04:42:11.093

This forum link seems to have solved the problem by doing so: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/bbfda694-abf1-4806-a149-73c7d7441646/unable-to-install-or-uninstall-applications?forum=winserverTS Since you have already tried ,try disabling antivirus & trying to rename the file temporarily.

– Raghu Ranganathan – 2018-04-12T04:56:04.717

Answers

Until I get a better answer to my own question:

What is inprogressinstallinfo.ipi? Presumably it's a temporary database created by Windows Installer during installation. Kudos to anyone who can provide a more informed answer.

Is it safe to delete? I have deleted mine, which fixed the problems.

You can't just delete/rename the file because it is protected by Windows File Protection. The steps to delete it are:

Get MoveFile from Microsoft. This can schedule file moves at boot time.

Open a command prompt as administrator, enter

movefile C:\Windows\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi C:\Windows\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi.bak

These steps worked for me because it coincided with a system update, which temporarily turned off WFP. So either wait for a system update or set the SFCDisable registry key (see here)
Reboot your computer for movefile to move the file at boot time

Bob Mortimer

Posted 2018-04-11T21:19:35.143

Reputation: 103

I know this is an older thread, but I wanted to chime in as I worked through this exact problem today. Unfortunately the 'MoveFile' method didn't work for me.

What I found instead was that the %TEMP% and %TMP% user and system variables were contained extra folder paths. In my case, they were pointing to not only their defaults (below), but also to several folders that no longer existed.

After resetting them back to just the default locations, the installer completed successfully, no longer displaying the "inprogressinstallinfo.ipi" error.

Defaults (User and System respectfully):

%TEMP% & %TMP% -> %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp

%TEMP% & %TMP% -> %SystemRoot%\TEMP

Korbman

Posted 2018-04-11T21:19:35.143

Reputation: 137

1It's great to gather together alternative solutions to the same error message, thanks. Don't know whether we had different underlying problems presenting with the same error message. Nevertheless it makes this page much more helpful for someone getting the same error. – Bob Mortimer – 2018-11-17T23:05:48.147