Error 2203

Hi, folks: My friend asked me for help and this is beyond my ability. Perhaps members here can lend me a helping hand. He got winxp home sp2, all pathes updated. lately after reinstall its O/S, he has problems installing some apps using window installer 3.1, keep getting internal error 2203, such apps as McAffee's, perfect disk, Diskeeper, even Adobe Reader. I looked up at Microsoft's web site, not much help, except asking to rename files. I did not have this similiar problems. Could this window installer 3.1 (patched lately ?) is corrupted, or files missing? Remedy plaese. Thanks in advance.

 

Hello,

Option 1: Running as admin?

Option 2: Maybe the Windows Installer is corrupt.
You could download and reinstall?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FC-5F56-4A38-B838-DE776FD4138C&displaylang=en

Mrk

 

The problem with MSI error codes is the one displayed isn’t necessarily the true error causing the install failure. It may be the final error after the original error tripped it up.

Here’s how to get a better idea of what the issue is. The procedures will create a log file.

1.Edit your registry (Regedit at the Start/Run line) at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer] to include this: "Logging"="voicewarmup". This setups up verbose logging for the MSI. You may also need to create the “Key” called “Installer” if it does not already exist.

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]
Value Name: Logging
Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value)​

2. Double click on the software install file and let it fail, it will create a log file in your temp directory.
3. Open the command prompt (type CMD at the Start/Run line), and type cd %temp% and return to set default to the location where the log was written.
4. Type dir msi*.log and you will see a listing of all of the installation log file name(s). Find the most recent one. It will be called something like MSI3aa10.log.
5. Edit your registry at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer] to include this "Logging"="". This disables MSI verbose logging (resets you back to where you were originally before this test)
6. Open the MSI log file with any text editor. You’ll want to search for “Return value 3”. Locate noted errors in the paragraph right before the first retuned search for this string (and after the last “Return Value 1” line. Searching for Return Value 3 indicates the true issue almost all the time. You can also search the actual error code you received (2203) here. Often the info in this log will point you in the direction of a solution.
7. Look for the error codes listed after this value. Here’s the chart on what the numerical codes mean: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372835.aspx

If you have problems re-installing Diskeeper. You can send them [Diskeeper} your install log and have them help debug. The solution from them, will probably fix the other install issues as well.

 

Hi, folks: Thanks for all of you. I will allocate some time to assist him to get over the huddle.