Summary

Symptoms

A application continues to try to reinstall itself when it is launched.

Cause

This is happening because a key file or path for the application is missing or corrupted on the target system. The Windows Installer Service notices the problem and tries to self-repair the component. This is meant to repair the component and keep the product running correctly.

Resolution

To find out why this is happening, you can look at the Event Viewer's application log. The Event Viewer is available on WinNT, 2000, and XP machines. On Win2000 and XP machines, the Event Viewer can be accessed from the Administrative Tools section from within the Control Panel. It gives a product and component related to the problem. This indicates there is a problem with the key file related to the listed component GUID.

It may be useful to generate a log of the installation. Verbosely logging the installation can provide further information. Additional information on logging an installation can be found in the following Knowledge Base articles (See the Related KB Articles Section below):

can through the log file and identify any errors or warnings that may have occurred. Additional information on errors and warnings that may appear in the log file can be found in the Windows Installer Help Library by searching for that particular error code. Or, search the log file for the specific file, feature, or component that appears to be reinstalling.

Check the Event Viewer. The 1001 and 1004 messages will indicate next steps.

The message with event ID 1001 states which component was being installed. The component listed here is the component named in the Component_ column of the Shortcut table for the particular shortcut.

The other message with event ID 1004 indicates which component failed detection. Improved event logging in Windows Installer 2.0 has updated the message so that in most cases, the message identifies the actual resource that resulted in the failed detection. The component with the missing or damaged keypath is the component that is triggering the reinstallation.

Workaround

Additional Information

More information on the auto-repair feature in Office XP can be found in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 822238 How to understand the repair feature in Office 2003 and in Office XP.

For more information on broken features and components, see the Microsoft MSDN article Searching for a Broken Feature or Component.

For more information on setting a key path, see the Help Library topic Setting Key Paths for Components.

For more information on setting a key file, see Help Library topic Component Key Files.

Related Documents

Related KB Articles