How can I reinstall Windows Installer 4.5 on a Windows Vista SP1?

How can I reinstall Windows Installer 4.5 on a Windows Vista SP1? When I run the redistributable installer, it simply says that the update is not needed (msiexec /? indeed returns the same version).

The actual problem i'm facing is related to the inability of installing any updates (i.e. SP2) due to a (apparently) corrupted behavior of Windows Installer. When I try to start the EAP service (WLAN autoconfig dependency), it mentions that the EAP service is not a valid Win32 instance, erroring with "193, 0xc1".

Any ideas?

XXL

Posted 2011-08-11T21:32:42.663

Reputation: 1 359

Have you tried uninstalling the windows installer service first? – MaQleod – 2011-08-11T21:46:10.837

how can i do that? – XXL – 2011-08-11T21:50:26.980

It should be listed in Add/Remove Programs. – music2myear – 2011-08-11T22:01:29.913

Im not 100% sure here, but, you could have bigger problems... Possibly try running SFC /SCANNOW from an elevated command line. – William Hilsum – 2011-08-11T22:02:20.577

yes, i have performed sfc /scannow prior to this and it has reported some errors that it could not correct, as well. suggestions? – XXL – 2011-08-11T22:19:10.063

Answers

To force a reinstall you'll need to run the installer with the correct options.

This site has a good list of the various options.

You'll need to get the .msi package version of the Windows Installer. Once you've got that, go to Start > Run, and type the following and click OK:

msiexec /fams "c:\...pathtoinstaller\installname.msi"

music2myear

Posted 2011-08-11T21:32:42.663

Reputation: 34 957

any idea where i can get the .msi version from? microsoft seems to only offer .msu – XXL – 2011-08-11T22:18:22.637

The MSU should probably work as well. Give it a try. The worst it'll do is not work. – music2myear – 2011-08-11T22:22:07.080

MSI stands for Microsoft Scripted Installer (I think). MSU is an Update rather and an installer. – music2myear – 2011-08-11T22:24:40.570

.msu didn't work, Microsoft does not distribute Windows Installer in an .msi from what i see.. so kinda hitting a brick wall here – XXL – 2011-08-11T22:28:08.787

@XXL, MSU files are run by msiexec, the same program that handles MSI files; eg msiexec /f Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu – Synetech – 2011-08-13T00:13:15.523

@Synetech inc. From his comment above it would seem he found it did not work as you claim it will. Please provide some other evidence, such as an article or web page stating that it should. – music2myear – 2011-08-15T14:54:27.073

I didn’t claim it would work, I said that MSU files are handled by the same installer (msiexec) as for MSI files. In fact, I specifically said that the site I referenced says that you cannot remove Windows Installer. – Synetech – 2011-08-16T00:16:49.730

I assume you are using the file Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu correct?

The redistributable doesn’t return any relevant options, but try running a repair by using Windows Installer’s /f switch. You can also try some of the arguments for the repair function:

Repair Options
    /f[p|e|c|m|s|o|d|a|u|v] <Product.msi | ProductCode>
        Repairs a product
        p - only if file is missing
        o - if file is missing or an older version is installed (default)
        e - if file is missing or an equal or older version is installed
        d - if file is missing or a different version is installed
        c - if file is missing or checksum does not match the calculated value
        a - forces all files to be reinstalled
        u - all required user-specific registry entries (default)
        m - all required computer-specific registry entries (default)
        s - all existing shortcuts (default)
        v - runs from source and recaches local package

Failing that, try uninstalling it first with the /uninstall switch.

If all else fails, you can resort to the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility (no need to bother running manually MSIZap; MSICUU does it for you). (However, according to this page, it does not remove Windows Installer—which I suppose makes sense to a degree—but it may be worth a shot as a last resort anyway.)

Synetech

Posted 2011-08-11T21:32:42.663

Reputation: 63 242

unfortunately, none of this has resulted in any progress :( – XXL – 2011-08-12T17:19:41.340

You could try manually replacing the files. You would need something like 7-Zip to extract everything from Windows6.0-KB942288-v2-x86.msu. Unfortunately, the files are not named correctly in the archive, so you’ll have to rename them. In the meantime, I’m examining it to figure out how to wipe it out (at least enough) to allow you to reinstall it.

– Synetech – 2011-08-13T00:19:14.673