bear with me please, i seriously need help, even though this thread is a bit long.sorry, but i have no clue where 2 put this thread..if i put it in the wrong area, then plz move it. (sorry about how i have no idea, and i did read the section names, but still had no clue)anyways, im going to kill my computer and myself if this doesnt get fixed. when i use windows installer, i get an error:"windows installer could not be accessed. This could be because of running under safe mode..bla bla"no, im not running under safe mode. i have sp2. im logged on as administrator. i have windows xp. my account has full access to the entire drive. i have read like EVERY thread EVER made on how to fix this, and nothing worked. I have read EVERY windows help article ever made, and that didnt help.HOWEVER, i did find one thread where it told me to click start, run, type services.msc, and click ok, and then scroll down to windows installer service. it was stopped. i tried starting it, and got an error 5: access denied. I think thats probably why my computer isnt using windows installer correctly. There are two links at the bottom leading to screenshots of both errors. I'm on the administrator account, and i have full privileges. My system has full control. i seriously need to get this fixed, because i cannot install anything that uses microsoft installer. I've had this problem for a week. Things to point out:i cant install microsoft updates. ( why i cant is why i made this thread in the first place. =P )i have re-installed microsoft installer 3.1. did that work? obviously not, or else i wouldnt have made this thread.btw, im not re-installing windows xp. i would lose wayyy too much stuff. if there's a way to re-install all system files from the os cd without losing any of my stuff, lemme know. NO, i will not create a backup. i lose all my registry, and some programs wont work anymore anyways. I will only reinstall system files if it wont harm my other programs.http://img368.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitledqp8.pngok, thats all. PLEASE HELP ME. i think im gunna shoot my computer if i dont figure out how to fix this with all the frustration..

also, im re-installing sp2. i'll let u know if that fixes it. sheesh, i hope it does.EDIT::Doesnt work...sometimes microsoft, u r very annoying. -.-EDIT2:if someone has a handy dandy program that would install .msi files without using windows installer, i'd worship it, hands down. EDIT3:Now installing all microsoft updates available for first time. yeah i know, right?EDIT4:Did i even post this in the right FORUM? lol

wow, what an amazing conversation im having with myself. anyways, i fixed my problem. i've completely bypassed windows installer and got an .msi extractor. For others who get this problem, basically, it will install it in a folder and u just move the files to wherever u want the program to be. its called universal extractor, if u want it, google is ur friend.

Hi, I also faced the same problem this afternoon and found the following solution from google. And, I copy and paste it here as I believe that it could help out for someone like me. The Windows Installer Service is a component of XP that's used to install programs, but sometimes the files that make up the Installer service get damaged. Luckily, it's usually fairly easy to fix the problem, but you'll need to edit the registry. You need to be an administrator to perform these steps: Click Start | Run. In the Open box, type cmd to open a command prompt, and click OK. At the prompt, type msiexec.exe /uregister. Press ENTER. Make sure the SYSTEM account has full control permissions to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key in the registry: Open your favorite registry editor. In the left pane, navigate to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT top level registry key. Click the Edit menu and select Permissions. In the Group User Names list, make sure SYSTEM is listed. If not, click the Add button and type SYSTEM in the box labeled "Enter the object names to select." Click OK. Click SYSTEM in the Group or User Names list and check the checkbox labeled Full Control under Allow. Click Apply and then OK. Close the registry editor. Restart the computer. Have fun!!

I am having the same problem that Emarian is. When I ran services.msc in the run menu. I went down to windows installer & tried to repair it & got an error # 997: Overlapped I/O operation is in progress. When I tried to start windows installer I got the same error 997. Can someone help from here? Thanks

Anyone have a solution to this problem? I have this problem with my Windows 2008 server x64.I have tried the MyoZaw solution, but it did not work.Eivind