Windows Installer Service - iTunes Fix

Hi everyone,

Okay, I am running Vista Home Premium (64 bit). Recently I downloaded
a lot of updates for Vista from the Microsoft website. Then a few days
ago I saw that iTunes had a new update. I tried to update the system
but it would not work. So I thought "Hmm, must be trying to download
the 32 bit version of the software". I proceeded to download the 64 bit
installer directly to my hard drive. But when I tried to run the
program I got a message indicating that the Windows Installation Service
was unavailable and to contact support personnel, or something equally
useless.

In any event, I tried most of the suggestions on this site without any
luck. Just to save you some time, I'm not going to go into detail
regarding the exact method I tried. Just type in the descriptions below
and I'm sure you will come across the threads. I tried the following:
1. de-register / register using "run";
2. download a "good" registry key from a different computer that was
also running Vista (32 and 64 bit) and paste it into my registry;
3. download that useless "spam" program that is advertised in
association with this problem; and
4. copy and paste into a txt document the text of a registry entry and
save it as a .reg file.

Needless to say none of these worked. However, during my travels I
came across an interesting post relating to the installation of 64-bit
programs. Specifically, the person had noticed that 64-bit apps were
not installing, and the error meesage involved the WOW64 registry entry.

More specifically:

"I tried everything from unregistering and then re-registering the
msiexec files in both the system32 folder and the sysWOW64 folder. I
tried editing the registry and changing the windows installer imagepath
to the SysWOW64 folder. I tried running it with UAC on and then off and
from the true Administrator account, etc....nothing solved the issue.

Finally, the other day I was searching the problem out and came upon
this blog:

'Think# Knowledge Blog' ()

I changed the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSIServer\WOW64
from a 1 to a 0."

Well I tried the same thing, only I completely deleted the WOW64
registry entry. In any event, it worked and my 64 bit apps are
installing exactly the way they should.

I hope that helps someone and keeps them from wasting time on the
wholly useless Microsoft website.


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cerebus777

 

I tried what cerebus777 posted and also just deleted wow64 completely
and did a restart of computer and have been able to download and install
any and all updates that I could not previously do. I have not yet tried
to delete any programs yet but I am going to try that next. I was unable
to uninstall any programs either. Thank You very much cerebus777 for
finding this I have been trying for days to fix this but I do not go
into the registry because am not formiliar with it and know it is very
dangerous. This was an amazing job and. THANK YOU AGAIN

Bill Schreck
Milford ct. 06460


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wtss
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