Cannot Access Windows Installer after Uninstall HELP!!!

Question

Alright, I'm packaging an app for work and finally got every function working properly after countless hours of troubleshooting.  Then I tested out the uninstall.  After I install the app, everything works great, I can install/uninstall other apps no problem.  But if I uninstall the original app, then I cannot install anything else unless I reboot which is unacceptable.  The original setup does not require a reboot after uninstall.    If I do try to install another app without a reboot  then I get the error "Windows installer service could not be accessed...." If I try to manually start the windows installer service the I get the error message:  "Could not start the Windows installer service on the local computer.  Error 1018:  Illegal operation  detected on a registry key that has been marked for deletion."   I have google this to no end, tried to use procmon, and have the unistall log if anyone wants me to post it.  I'm fairly new to packaging apps and am pleading for some of you experts to help me figure this out.  Thanks in advance.

Answer

Why not use a lightweight snapshot tool (my preferred weapon is Ziff-Davis' In Control - Google for 'InCtrl5.ZIP') to snap before the reboot, reboot then re-snap after? That will show you what changed and you can work from that point. Of course the snap will be full of junk you're not interested in but at least you know you can ignore files (since WI flagged a registry key as marked for deletion).
 
 Before that, though, I'd persist with ProcMon. Use it right before you try to restart WI service - it will show you the key in question being accessed.

Answer

ok, did like you said and used that snapshot tool (very handy).  From the report, it says 29 reg keys were deleted when the system was rebooted.  So I installed the app, uninstalled it(to set up the scenario), then manually deleted each key that was listed in the report, after each key I deleted I tried to start the windows installer service so I could maybe pin point which reg key was the culprit. I went through all 29 keys but to no avail.  Windows installer service still would not start unless I rebooted the system.

Answer

Error 1018:  Illegal operation  detected on a registry key that has been marked for deletion.
 Sounds like there is an open handle on the registry preventing it from being deleted.
 Try Process Explorer or Process Monitor from Sysinternals/Microsoft to pin-down the registry and the user/process preventing the registry deletion.

Answer

Try the below reg keys -
 HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\InProgress
 HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations
 Remove any entries if they exist.

Answer

ORIGINAL:  rich872
 So I installed the app, uninstalled it(to set up the scenario), then manually deleted each key that was listed in the report, Did I say to do that? The purpose here was to determine what registry keys were being accessed. ProcMon (or similar) is the only realistic way to find out what MSIExec.EXE is trying to access. I suspect you gave up with ProcMon because of the amount of information it produces. Easy: just set it to monitor MSIExec.EXE only and turn off the 'File activity' display, since all you're interested in (here) is 'Registry activity'.

Answer

Thanks everyone for their replies.  After several hours more of troubleshooting, trying everything posted here and more,I just started over.  There were two setups to install into and there were multiple updates.  I used snapshots instead of installation monitoring and rebooted after each setup was complete and again after the updates then took the final snapshot.  This solved my issue with windows installer.  There were a few more bugs but I was able to get all those resolved as well using procmon, what a great troubleshooting tool. Thanks again for everyones help.

Answer

Hi Richard,
 
 I am having same problem, what u encountered regarding stopping the windows installer after application installation.
 
 I tried the way posted here but my problem was not solved, can u please help me: what are keys actually deleting and adding to stop the windows installer.
 
 Hi all (Involved in this post)
 Could u give me any suggestions?
 http://itninja.com/question/windows-installer-service-has-stoped..
 
 Thanks in Advance.
 Sourav.

Answer

turns out I never updated my VM with the latest windows updates therefore it didnt have windows installer 3.1.  Once I did this then repackaged the app, I never had that issue again.

Answer

u mean if we have windows insatller 3.1 .. it should solve problem right

Answer

I'm saying just make sure the machine on which you package the application has windows installer 3.1 on it before you capture any installs.  Mine didnt and when I captured the installation and created a package from it all was fine until I uinstalled the package then I got that error.

Answer

ORIGINAL: rich872
 when I captured the installation and created a package from it all was fine until I uinstalled the package then I got that error. 
 
 I think u were done package with the version windows installer 3.1 ... even though u got error while uninstalling.
 
 For my case also same , i did package on machine with the lower version of  windows installer (not 3.1) , so i got the error while uninstalling the application.
 
 Oops..I thought u were telling we should have windows installer 3.1 so it should solve our problem
 
 ???????
 
 Thanks,
 Sourav.

Answer

Try packaging the app on a machine with windows installer 3.1 on it.  That will probably solve  your issue.

Answer

Thanks i will update installer to 3.1 and then create a package.......
  
 I will let u know once done...
  
 Richard Many Thanks for ur valuable time.
  
 Regards,
 Sourav.

Answer

No problem at all, hopefully that resolves your issue.

Answer

I did same...

I thought it would solve my problem.... but  not.
  
 Thanks.

Answer

What if you reboot, does that solve the problem?  I know originally when I ran into that issue, if I rebooted I know longer ha the problem.  We were going to just force a reboot but then we got the issue resovled by using windows installer 3.1 like I mentioned earlier.  If rebooting fixes it, you may just have to force a reboot after the install of the package.

Answer

Hi richard,
 
 As u mentioned my problem is getting solved when i reboot the Machine...
 
 I have done .msi ... so like u told i would like to reboot the machine after .msi installation..in this way how can i put reboot machine silently with in the .msi.
 
 http://itninja.com/question/problem-pushing-packages-by-user-assigned..15
 
 Thanks,
 sourav.

Cannot Access Windows Installer after Uninstall HELP!!!

Answers (17)

Posted by:

View more:

Related Questions

Related Links

Related Posts

Software Deployment

Cannot Access Windows Installer after Uninstall HELP!!!

Answers (17)

Posted by:

Don't be a Stranger!

View more:

Related Questions

Related Links

Related Posts

Share