Fix broken program installs on Vista with Windows Installer Cleanup
There are some cases where Windows just doesn’t like the program you are trying to install or get rid of and occasionally the installer/uninstaller hangs. At this point you can try restarting or you may have to power off manually. The problem arises when you get back to Windows, it will no longer let you install/repair or uninstall the program you were working with. This is fixable.
Only use this utility if you have received an error in the Add/Remove Programs (Windows 95 to XP) or Programs and Features (Windows Vista) while attempting to repair/uninstall a program, there may be a problem with the Windows Installer or routines required to execute the operation. Errors may also occur during reinstallation attempts.
For your convenience, Microsoft provides a little known utility called Windows Installer Cleanup and it does exactly what it says. This utility cleans up any mess an incomplete install/uninstall leaves behind and repairs the files required to complete the operation.
After downloading and installing the Cleanup utility, it will automatically run and scan for any incomplete operations, almost no action is required on your part except to click next.
If it found (and repaired) an operation and program files you may now go back to the Control Panel and install/repair/uninstall the program you were working with.
Windows Installer Cleanup works with Windows 95 and all versions right up to and including Vista.
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January 13th, 2008
yea that’s nice.. it doesn’t run on vista.. gives a permission denied error 800a0046 ms vbscript runtime error. ms sucks.
January 14th, 2008
Joe, It does run on Vista, in fact Microsoft says it works with every version of Windows since 95. It would be more accurate to say that “it doesn’t work on your installation of Vista” which is probably an indicator that you have a more serious issue than broken installations.
A quick search reveals this is likely caused by one or more corrupted runtime files. It’s not Vista’s fault, not really.
I’m not sure what kind of error it would toss up if you weren’t logged in as admin, it has to be run under an administrator account.
Suffice it to say, I’ve run this on around a dozen computers running both XP and Vista and have had zero problems.
January 19th, 2008
noo Jow is write it doesnt work i bought my pc 6 months ago and it says the same shi.t cant beilvie this man…
January 19th, 2008
See above comment…
March 10th, 2008
WICU works fine if run as admin.
http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/170/1/Error-800A0046—Permission-Denied-when-installing-the-Windows-Installer-Cleanup-Utility-in-Windows-Vista.html
January 3rd, 2009
I,m having the same problem with windows installer in vista. I downloaded the windows installer cleanup utility, but I can’t install it because windows installer isn’t installed correctly. Kind of a catch 22 isn’t it.
January 8th, 2009
Ditto. I cannot install anything even after getting around the permissions issue. The installer won’t install the install cleanup. And now every reboot tries to re-install old bad installs making it worse. I can’t install Outlook, Office, Cleanup, Registry repair programs or whatever. This sucks. You can’t fix an installer if you can’t install
February 1st, 2009
Has there been any resolution found for this? I tried ureg/reg msiserver and on and on and on. I need help!
February 7th, 2009
Windows Installer Cleanup Utility is not working here either. “Library not registered” error, what ever that means.
February 20th, 2009
Same issue… has this been resolved?
July 14th, 2009
try to register msi.dll to see (regsvr32 msi.dll)
August 18th, 2009
In fact, it doesn’t run on my brand new Windows Vista… yes, Microsoft hurts. Starting to move out of this shi.t
September 6th, 2009
Yes, MS sucks. I cannot run Windows Installer Cleanup either. The error message is: ActiveX component can’t create object: ‘Scripting.FileSystemOhject’, code: 800Ao1AD, source: Microsoft VBScript runtime error.
I am upset and angry with Microsoft!
September 26th, 2009
OMG U SAVE ME I CANT UNISTAL GUITAR HERO iii AND NOW ITS WORK FINE TYTYTYTYTYTTYT THANK YOU SO MUCH MICROSOFT YOUR THE BEST
))))))))))))
November 2nd, 2009
yes I am having the same problem uninstalling GHIII. still cant uninstall? cnat find the .exe I installed it on my other laptop works just fine both running vista. One on Dell and one on my Acer. Dell works just fine but Acer acting strange.
December 26th, 2009
I would like to say Jonathan is right and a bad workman always blames his tools and others never himself
January 4th, 2010
He! He! I encountered this problem too. When I got to this site and followed the instructions provided by Jonathan Schaffler, it worked perfectly for my vista. Of course when I was reading the comments on this blog, I almost gave up. Thank you Jonathan.