Goose--
I have a some to try to clear something up, and hope you will. If someone
were getting errors that indicated that they had an MSI that needed
repairing and they had Win XP with a native MSI 2.0, could they replace
damaged files by using the download links in this KB 292529? For some
reason, while it provides the native 2.0 that is contained in Windows XP
RTM/Gold, and XP SP1.
1) This KB does not list that the download is for XP but does give the
information that XP has 2.0--shouldn't the download say for XP as well and
won't it work for XP as well or does it leave out XP because XP comes with
MSI 2.0 and NT and 2K don't. Couldn't you replace damaged MSI2.0 files in
Windows XP with this download though?
2) If someone had a damaged MSI 2.0 in XP through the SP1 build, would they
replace MSI 2.0 by downloading any build of XP SP2 since a public SP2 2149
(RC2) is available at Technet and multiple leaked 2162s are available on
Beta news sites, or they could get XP SP2 RTM or RTW pretty soon--and would
either the MSI Windows Installer Engine be replaced with a different one
when they installed SP2 and MSI 3.0 and would MSI 2.0 be replaced or could
one still find the engine for 2.0 and MSI 2.0 on the hard drive, but it
would not be used if 3.0 were available? Or does the Windows Installer
Engine remain when XP SP2 is installed on a XP SP1 and the MSI 2.0 get
uninstalled when the MSI 3.0 comes along on an XP SP2 install?
3) How and when is it appropriate to repair your current MSI whether it
would be 2.0 or 3.0? The reason I bring this up is that this MSKB suggest
multiple ways to "repair the MSI," and it's the only one I could find that
does this. By repair I mean there are instructions to reregister the
installer, or to rename the damaged Windows Installer files and then
reinstall the Windows Installer. The article says it applies to Windows 9x
through the NT kernel OS's, the difference being to write the word system 32
in the commands given if you are using Windows 98.
I am not sure if the last sentence in the KB means you don't have to
reinstall the installer if you are using Windows XP:
"You do not have to perform this step if you use Windows XP-- or that you
don't have to download the Windows Installer for Windows XP since it comes
with 2.0--but the original problem would have been that 2.0 was damaged in
Windows XP.
"Error 1719. The Windows Installer service could not be accessed" error
message when you try to add or remove a program
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];315346
I have been wondering about these questions for a while ever since I had a
problem with a damaged 2.0 that wouldn't uninstall a .net framework that was
getting in the way of an earlier version that BCM the Outlook Add-In needs
to run the MSDE. I got around that by installing an MSI 3.0
"concommitantly" to get rid of the offending .net framework (there is a
non-MSFT patch now on the BCM group to handle multiple versions of .net with
the early BCM version).
Many thanks Goose or anyone who can clear these questions up for me.
Chad Harris
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
