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Due to problems with the windows installer 5 I must rename msi.dll for reinstallation. That's not possible in save mode/as administrator (access denied). Of course the service is stopped. Any hints?

Edit: My problem is that I can't install msi files anymore. Everytime after some dialogs I get an error message that the corresponding msi file can't be read. I have tried any infos I found in the www universe and lost a lot of time already. E. g. I replaced the registry settings, used sfc /scannow without success.

In Windows 7 there is no dllcache, so I really don't know what is preventing renaming.

ANTLRStarter
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  • Really sounds like you should reinstall this computer. The link below does contain an answer for how to rename msi.dll and replace it though: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315346#method2 . Boot to safe mode before trying the procedure though. – Stein Åsmul May 30 '14 at 00:10
  • Maybe you can try the guys at http://serverfault.com/ too - the system administrator site. That site is probably better for this particular type of questions. – Stein Åsmul May 30 '14 at 00:12
  • Rebuild the machine. This is off topic for StackOVerflow. – Christopher Painter May 30 '14 at 01:50
  • @Christopher: My most competent professor always said: »There are no stupid questions, only supid answers!« – ANTLRStarter May 30 '14 at 15:05
  • You're asking the question in the wrong place. There is no scenario from a setup development perspective where you would need to rename msi.dll. You have a platform corruption problem and that's a topic for ServerFault or SuperUser. – Christopher Painter May 30 '14 at 15:49
  • You must have some odd security settings for msiexec.exe to bomb out after the dialogs. I recommend a system rebuild or to simplify the security configuration if the msi fails from a network drive. http://www.serverfault.com will help better with the follow-up, try posting there. Custom security on the system drive is not recommended - there are too many unpredictable side-effects. – Stein Åsmul May 30 '14 at 18:42

2 Answers2

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My problem is that I can't install msi files anymore. Everytime after some dialogs I get an error message that the corresponding msi file can't be read

This sounds a little bit strange. If you see MSI dialogs and the install fails when you kick it off there must be something else wrong. I assume you have, but have you verified that the problem exists with multiple MSI files? Try with a fresh MSI file, preferably one that you downloaded fresh from the Internet. Try to run from the local disk and from a network disk.

Have you enabled logging for the install? Try to do so with flush to log enabled (the ! character enables continuous flushing to log so that an msiexec.exe crash doesn't leave an empty log file):

msiexec.exe /i C:\Path\Your.msi /L*vx! C:\Your.log

See msifaq.com for more details (logging faq entry). Search for "value 3" in the log file to find errors as explained by Rob Mensching (Wix & Orca author).

Also try to disable any anti virus software and / or desktop security that may be interferring with the file extraction from the MSI's cab file. Is there plenty of disk space? Are there any errors found during a disk scan?

Stein Åsmul
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  • Glytzhkof, many thanks for all your efforts and that logging hint. Thanks to the log file I was able to identify the corresponding Windows Installer error message (1305). So I found the hint that the problem might be a permissions problem. As a first test I just copied the msi file to c:\ and installation was successful! More details will follow after further investigations. – ANTLRStarter May 30 '14 at 16:02
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Are you trying to revert to a previous version of Windows Installer? Here is some information: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315346.

I suppose you could use system restore as well, but that would have other side effects.

What is the overall problem? Windows Installer 5 does not seem to introduce anything very controversial: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd408114(v=vs.85).aspx

Stein Åsmul
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