When running an installation on your computer, you may encounter error 1605 with or without the following error message:

Error 1605: "This action is only valid for products that are currently installed".

This error is only encountered when running installations based on the Windows Installer Service.

1. When an installation is being uninstalled from your computer
   If the error occurs when the installation is being uninstalled from your computer, use Microsoft's Windows Installer Clean Up utility to remove the installation information from the system registry. The Windows Installer Clean Up utility will not remove all the files that are installed by the installation. You will need to delete them manually. Follow these steps to accomplish this:
   Download Windows Installer Clean Up utility
   1. Go to Microsoft's Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility page.
   2. Scroll down and click the link Download the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility package now.
   3. Save the file on your Desktop.
   4. Double-click on the downloaded file to install the Windows Installer Clean Up utility.
   To remove traces of your installation from your computer:
   1. Go to Start > Programs > Windows Install Clean Up to launch the Windows Installer Clean Up.
       
      
   2. In the dialog that appears, select the installation you want to uninstall.
      
   3. Click Remove.
   4. Launch Windows Explorer by pressing Windows key + E or select Start > Explore.
   5. Go to the location where the installation has installed the files, usually C:\Program Files\NameofCompanyorApplication, and manually delete them. To do this, select all the files (Ctrl +A or Edit > Select All) and hit the Delete key.
    
2. When installing an application for the first time
   Error 1605 occurs when the installation thinks that the application has already been installed once on your computer. This causes the installation to run in Maintenance mode; however, it fails in the process because a previous instance of this installation does not exist on your computer. One of the reasons why this happens is because a property called REINSTALLMODE has been set incorrectly within the installation. Follow these steps to run the installation with the correct REINSTALLMODE property.
   1. Select Start > Run.
   2. In the Open field, type
      • Windows NT 4.0, 2000. or XP: cmd.exe and click OK.
      • Windows 95 / 98 or ME: command.com and click OK.
   3. At the MS-DOS prompt, type in the path, or location, of setup.exe along with the REINSTALLMODE property, e.g., <PATH>\setup.exe /V"REINSTALLMODE="omus"
      
   4. Press Enter. This runs the installation again with the correctly set property.
    
3. Install the ISScript engine
   Another known solution to this issue is to install the ISScript engine on your computer. To install the ISScript engine, refer to Update to the Latest InstallShield Installation Engines.

Does Your Issue Still Exist?

If after following these instructions your product failed to install, you'll need to contact your vendor. See the Who to Contact page for more information.