How to completely Remove windows installer & reinstall

Can not download windows updates or load anything else as far as that
matter. It tells me windows installer could not be accessed. tried the step
by step info. on going in registry to fix, but no luck. Would like to know
how remove all of it and reinstall. thank for any help.

Hi JimSandy - Well, it's not at all obvious what state your system is in
since you don't describe specifically what you've done to your registry (or
for that matter, just which OS and SP level you have).

However, as a start, if you can (e.g. XP/ME), please do a System Restore to
a RP prior to your Registry changes and reboot. If you have any
Norton/Symantec software installed, disable it at this time. Now reboot
again.

Then go to Settings|AddRemovePrograms and uninstall ALL listings you have
for any version of Windows Installer and then reboot. Now reboot again.

Then go here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=893803

and download Window Installer 3.1 and reboot to Safe mode or to a Clean
Boot (see my Blog, addy below in my Signature, for directions). Now install
Windows Installer 3.1 and reboot. Now reboot again. You can now re-enable
your Norton/Symantec software (if you previously disabled it and you feel
that you must.)

Then try Windows Update (Microsoft Update?) again. Please understand that
you may well have other update issues, so please post back if these steps
don't solve your problem.

--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/



"jimsandy3" <> wrote in message
news:0C07F860-E497-4349-8EB2-
|| Can not download windows updates or load anything else as far as that
|| matter. It tells me windows installer could not be accessed. tried the
step
|| by step info. on going in registry to fix, but no luck. Would like to
know
|| how remove all of it and reinstall. thank for any help.

this all started when I had to reload xp because of bad files and wanted to
upgrade from sp1 to sp2. So I don't have a good restore point. I also don,t
see anything in add and remove programs with windows installer.

"Jim Byrd" wrote:

> Hi JimSandy - Well, it's not at all obvious what state your system is in
> since you don't describe specifically what you've done to your registry (or
> for that matter, just which OS and SP level you have).
>
> However, as a start, if you can (e.g. XP/ME), please do a System Restore to
> a RP prior to your Registry changes and reboot. If you have any
> Norton/Symantec software installed, disable it at this time. Now reboot
> again.
>
> Then go to Settings|AddRemovePrograms and uninstall ALL listings you have
> for any version of Windows Installer and then reboot. Now reboot again.
>
> Then go here:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=893803
>
> and download Window Installer 3.1 and reboot to Safe mode or to a Clean
> Boot (see my Blog, addy below in my Signature, for directions). Now install
> Windows Installer 3.1 and reboot. Now reboot again. You can now re-enable
> your Norton/Symantec software (if you previously disabled it and you feel
> that you must.)
>
> Then try Windows Update (Microsoft Update?) again. Please understand that
> you may well have other update issues, so please post back if these steps
> don't solve your problem.
>
> --
> Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
> My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
> http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
> "jimsandy3" <> wrote in message
> news:0C07F860-E497-4349-8EB2-
> || Can not download windows updates or load anything else as far as that
> || matter. It tells me windows installer could not be accessed. tried the
> step
> || by step info. on going in registry to fix, but no luck. Would like to
> know
> || how remove all of it and reinstall. thank for any help.
>
>
>

You may have to put a check mark in the "Show updates" box on the
top of Add or Remove Programs (in the middle at the top). Then
Windows Installer should be listed above all of the updates.

You will have to validate Windows to download Installer 3.1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
That's a link to the pre-download validation page linked to by
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=893803

"jimsandy3" <> wrote in message news:54C32487-2B2B-4258-8186-...
> this all started when I had to reload xp because of bad files and wanted to
> upgrade from sp1 to sp2. So I don't have a good restore point. I also don,t
> see anything in add and remove programs with windows installer.
>
> "Jim Byrd" wrote:
>> Hi JimSandy - Well, it's not at all obvious what state your system is in
>> since you don't describe specifically what you've done to your registry (or
>> for that matter, just which OS and SP level you have).
>>
>> However, as a start, if you can (e.g. XP/ME), please do a System Restore to
>> a RP prior to your Registry changes and reboot. If you have any
>> Norton/Symantec software installed, disable it at this time. Now reboot
>> again.
>>
>> Then go to Settings|AddRemovePrograms and uninstall ALL listings you have
>> for any version of Windows Installer and then reboot. Now reboot again.
>>
>> Then go here:
>>
>> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=893803
>>
>> and download Window Installer 3.1 and reboot to Safe mode or to a Clean
>> Boot (see my Blog, addy below in my Signature, for directions). Now install
>> Windows Installer 3.1 and reboot. Now reboot again. You can now re-enable
>> your Norton/Symantec software (if you previously disabled it and you feel
>> that you must.)
>>
>> Then try Windows Update (Microsoft Update?) again. Please understand that
>> you may well have other update issues, so please post back if these steps
>> don't solve your problem.
>>
>> --
>> Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP/DTS/AH-VSOP
>> My Blog, Defending Your Machine, here:
>> http://DefendingYourMachine.blogspot.com/
>>
>> "jimsandy3" <> wrote in message
>> news:0C07F860-E497-4349-8EB2-
>> || Can not download windows updates or load anything else as far as that
>> || matter. It tells me windows installer could not be accessed. tried the
>> step
>> || by step info. on going in registry to fix, but no luck. Would like to
>> know
>> || how remove all of it and reinstall. thank for any help.