How To Disable Windows Installer Resiliency (303439)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Installer 1.1
  • Microsoft Windows Installer 1.2
  • Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0
This article was previously published under Q303439
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SUMMARY

The "resiliency" feature of Windows Installer may pose a problem if you are performing a repair over a slow link or if the original media source is not present. There is no way to disable only the resiliency feature, but you can instead disable the Windows Installer service. This article describes how to disable Windows Installer.

MORE INFORMATION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.


Resiliency is the ability of an application to recover itself from a damaged state. The state may have been caused by a missing or incompatible file or registry key. Although Microsoft does not generally recommend disabling the Windows Installer, there may be situations in which it is advantageous to do so.

One way of disabling the Installer is to use the DisableMSI (Type REG_DWORD) policy. This policy will disable the Windows Installer, thereby stopping resiliency. The policy is set through the registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer

If the value of this per-computer system policy is set to "2", the Windows Installer is always disabled for all applications.

If this policy value is set to "0" or any other number other than "1" or "2" or is absent, the Installer is always enabled.

If this policy value is set to "1", the Installer is disabled for nonmanaged applications but is enabled for managed applications. This setting does allow an application to be advertised to all users of a computer but does not allow an application to be advertised to the current user.

NOTE: While this policy is set to "2" you will not be able to perform an installation or use any function of the Windows Installer.

REFERENCES

For additional information on system policy, see Help in the Windows Installer SDK, which is available from the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?URL=/code/sample.asp?url=/MSDN-FILES/027/001/457/msdncompositedoc.xml

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/6/2004
Keywords:kbhowto KB303439
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