As a troubleshooting step to guarantee proper installation, you may need to make sure that the Windows Installer Service is properly installed on your computer. Installations that are based on the Windows Installer Service require the MSI engine to be installed properly to ensure smooth installation. Most installations based on the Windows Installer Service automatically install the MSI engine on the computer prior to running the installation. In case of an error or other unexpected behavior, you may need to install the MSI engine manually. This article walks you through the process of:

• Locating or downloading the Windows Installer Service (MSI engine)
• Installing the Windows Installer Service (MSI engine) on your computer

Note: Windows XP already contains Windows Installer version 2.0. Thus, you should not have to install the Windows Installer Service (MSI engine) on Windows XP.

Locate or download the Windows Installer Service engine

Follow these steps to obtain the Windows Installer engine to install the service on your computer.

Windows 95/ 98/ Me

• Look for the file InstmsiA.exe in the same folder as setup.exe or on the CD containing the installation files. Once located, go to the Install the Windows Installer Service section below. If you cannot find the file:
  1. Go to Microsoft's Windows Installer 2.0 Redistributable for Windows 95, 98, and Me page.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on InstmsiA.exe, as shown in the following figure, to download the Windows Installer Engine.

     

Windows NT 4.0/2000

• Look for the file InstmsiW.exe in the same folder as setup.exe or on the CD containing the installation files. Once located, go to the Install the Windows Installer Service section below. If you cannot find the file:
  1. Go to Microsoft's >Windows Installer 2.0 Redistributable for Windows NT 4.0 and 2000 page.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on InstmsiW.exe, as shown in the following figure, to download the Windows Installer engine.

     

Install the Windows Installer Service

To install the Windows Installer engine, double-click on the file InstmsiA.exe on Windows 9.x /ME or InstmsiW.exe on Windows NT/2000. The installation will not display any dialogs with the exception of a progress bar indicating the installation progress.