Software Deployment

Do you have the same problem on all or just one computer?

Try to re-register the windows installer service:
Stop the windows installer service
Unregister the service by running "msiexec /unreg"
Re-register the service with "msiexec /regserver"

Now try to run any msi installation to see if this solves your problem.

Ya I tried that and it still doesn't work. This is happening on 2 different machines so far, tried everything from microsoft.com. It also comes up with an error "The Windows Installer service could not be accessed. Contact your support personnel to verify that the Windows Installer service is properly registered." Stumped.. any help appreciated.

Have you run the msi locally and what version of the windows installer do you got?

I have version 3.1.4000.2435 and ya it does not matter where I try to run a MSI install from. Also when I am in the services and looking at the Windows Installer Service it is not running. When I look at the dependencies I get "Win32:Access is Denied". I have tried unregistering, re-registering and downloading the MSI update and nothing is helping. "Verify that the SYSTEM account has full control access permissions to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive in the Windows registry. In some cases, you may also have to add Administrator accounts." done this as well... any other ideas, thanks a bunch

When I check the application log, I have multiple entries from the "MsiInstaller". It's a "Warning" and the description is "Failed to connect to server. Error: 0x80070005" Event ID: 1015.. Dunno if this helps any, but trying to give you as much info that I can to get this issue resolved.

This may be a longshot but verity that no policy is preventing windows installer from installing.
Policy:s can be found under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer

At that spot I have 7 entries: AllowLockDownBrowse, AllowLockDownMedia, AllowLockDownPatch, AlwaysInstallElevated, EnableAdminTSRemote, EnableUserControl and TransformsSecure. All of them have 0x00000000(0) in the data field except for EnableAdminTSRemote=0x00000001(0). When users log into our network, it auto generates a corresponding user on the desktop and in the administrators group, so everyone should have access to install apps. And this started happening after we tried implementing SP2, as well as trying to use sysprep and have one base image for all workstations. It's only happening on hte workstations that have SP2, and usually when I am trying to setup the machine. Sometimes I will image the machine, install the apps and works fine. After that if the user should need some other software and tries to run it from the NAL or anywhere else, ie Desktop, they recieve this error as well. Im getting really frustrated with this, Any other ideas?

Think I'm out of ideas as I don't use Novell anymore, but seems that it has something to do with the NAL.

Try to uninstall the novell client on a testmachine and run the installation, so you can pindown if it's a novell thing or something else.

Thanks for all the help and ideas.. Helped me get through this stupid error. The MSI Installer error was part of the whole mess, the other part was that you could not see your local connection even though the device manager said the card is installed and working properly.. Lying sacks of s**t! haha Anyway I figured out the problem to be a conflict with the Zenworks Agent that was installed and the newly installed SP2. I guess the version of Zenworks had no SP2 support. Downloaded the lastest installed and works like a charm again. Made a new sysprep image with that Zenworks Agent and deployed to repair the chaos that I had created...

Again, Thanx All!