Windows Installer keeps trying to reinstall the same program

Hi,

I'm having a problem that's somewhat similar to a short thread from last December (too old to reply to now), but different too. I re-installed an anti-spyware program, Counterspy, without any difficulty about 10 days ago. (I had re-installed my XP Pro OS from scratch because it had bogged down to a crawl and I was then re-installing the various third party apps to re-register them. The installation file I used for Counterspy (as per instructions from the vendor) was a self-extracting executable (an SFX) which I downloaded from their website.

A day or two after re-installing Counterspy the Windows installer started popping up a small window which complains that it can't find an msi script with which to install Counterspy. The directory it's looking in is invariably my temp folder (c:\Documents and Settings\db\Local Settings\Temp\blah_blah). There are two problems with this: (1) Counterspy doesn't need to be installed, and even if it did, (2) the msi script for Counterspy is compressed inside that SFX file which the company provided and which I used for the installation.

(I have tried pointing the Installer browse function at the SFX file but it refuses to read anything but an *.msi script.)

So, as noted, the popup window invariably points to my temp directory. Clicking Cancel first generates an error 1706 ( "network resource unavailable "), then when the box pops up again and I click cancel some more, it finally closes for an hour or so until the next occurrence.

Help from the Counterspy vendor was pretty useless -- they basically told me it must be the fault of another security program.

I have the Windows Installer Cleanup utility but want to be sure it's safe to run it. Should I do that, and what if that doesn't solve the problem? Any ideas?

Oh, and I downloaded and installed a fresh copy of msiexec.exe (the installer), v3.1. The problem still continues just as before.

Why would the installer keep wanting an msi script after a successful installation?

TIA for any suggestions.

- David
db82

 

Ironically, I had had a problem before with Counterspy refusing to completely install and was told by their support that the cause was probably a corrupted installer. And at that time I had tried using the Installer Cleanup utility without success. That was when they pointed me to the SFX installer to download.

But this isn't quite the same situation, and I can (will) create a system restore point before using it. So I'll try it and report back. Thanks for your input.

 

Deleting the installation entry with the Installer Cleanup Utility does seem to have fixed everything. Haven't seen the installer box pop up for many hours now. Thanks, and thanks for the welcome.