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Installer Service:Error 5 access denied

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by lilybelle

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Running windows 2000 prof client on 2000 domain, installer service always worked on this client machine. Stopped working, checked in services and the service was not started. Cannot start service. Receive an error when starting "Could not start thewindows installer service on local computer. Error 5. Access is denied." Have tried everything can think of. Updated service pack and installer to SP3 installer 2.0 . Logged in as local admin,logged in as domain admin, the service cannot be started.Cannot install Windows installer again because installer won't run! Catch 22. Any ideas would be appreciated. Search MS Knowledge base but can't install my latest version of technet because of this problem.

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by winterfrost

I have seen things like this when there is a previous installation package "stuck". One solution is to delete the files in the C:\Winnt\Installer hidden folder. To be honest, I don't know if there are any far-reaching ramifications to this, but I have done it before and it has fixed the issue without seeming to damage anything else in the system.

My other suggestion would be to force a re-install of Windows Installer as follows (credit to David Chernicoff):

1. From the AdministrativeTools menu, open Computer Management.
2. Expand the Services & Applications menu item.
3. Double-click Service.
4. Double-click Windows Installer, then stop the service.
5. Launch regedit.
6. Open
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer.
7. Select the MSIServer subkey and delete it.
8. Exit regedit and reboot the computer.
9. Download and install the latest version of Windows Installer from the MS website.

by lilybelle

Thanks for your response, but I tried both suggestions and I still receive the same error when trying to start the windows installer service.

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