464 thoughts on “Another Installation Already in Progress (But it’s Not)”

1. Worked great for me. Clean reg and followed steps.
   No issues after.
   Thanks.

2. Amazing, still applicable to 2008r2. 10/10 from me 🙂

3. Thank you!!! I am soo thankful I’ve been having issue after issue trying to install things and this was such an easy fix!

   You are amazing!

4. Worked for me in Windows Server 2003 R2!

5. Amazing! The article is dated sometime back in 2008, yet many people find it very useful. Just stumbled upon this and fixed my problem.

   VirtualBox-4.1.14-77440-Win.exe throws the same error while installing it on Windows 7 and following the instructions in this blog, I was able to save several precious hours. Thanks a ton!!

6. could not get rid of sweetim, the uninstalled failed with the ‘another install is in progress’ message, I followed the instructions and worked fine! I work with xp pro. Thanks a lot!!

7. worked for me thanx

8. works better than windows installer cleanup :p

   I could launch my setup program without hassle. The installer even told me which setup program had caused the problem in the first place and asked to clean it up. Great.

9. when i click on manage, nothing comes up.

10. I think that was it. I’ve been so annoyed and frustrated for so long now and I think this was it. I really can’t thank you enough for your advice. You are a wonderful person and I’d give you a big hug if I could. Thanks.

11. it didn’t work for me. The “Startup Type” box and the “Servie Status” boxes are grayed out

12. nevermind! I got it, I just used the task manager to close out of all instances of the windows installer. Thanks though.

13. Thanks.. This worked.

14. I’ve had this problem for years! Even my computer guy couldn’t figure this out.

    Thank you so much! I’m back able to install programs again.

15. Maybe there are a couple of flavours of this. On 2 of my machines, I keep getting the message but the windows installer service is not running, so your technique does nothing. And the error keeps popping up! And I have no trouble installing/updating programmes – just a thoroughly annoying message, another one every couple of days.

16. Thanks SO much!!

17. Does this work on XP?????

18. Cheers! Turned out it was Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 that wouldn’t finishing installing.

19. Thank you so much. This worked for me.

20. Thank you soo much!!! 😀

21. Worked for one install. Tried to run another and had to repeat the steps again. Hmm.

22. Hi,
    Where do I find the “windows installer” Ive been trying to download autoCAD 2013 on my lap for two day and it just doesnt work. I already have autoCAD 2008 on it but for some reason it just wont open and I have so much work to do for school. When I download CAD it downloads fine but then nothing happens. Then I get the msg ” an instance of setup is already running” I dont know what to do 🙁

    Any help is appreciated.

23. If you launch Task Manager you can see what’s running (Ctrl+Alt+Del then choose Task Manager then the Procedures tab). But it sounds like you are not experienced with Windows, so why don’t you just reboot? That will get rid of whatever is running and hung.

24. This worked fine for me but I had to do it twice. I followed the directions the first time and it did not work. I tried it again but the second time I shut off Zone Alarm and followed the instructions again and it worked. I am not sure if it had anything to do with my Zone Alarm but it worked. Originally I was having problems with uninstalling as well as installing but this fixed it!!

    Thanks
    Steve B.

25. It did not work for me! i tried it 4 times and every time i prepare to install itunes, that annoying message pops up again! is there any other way?? its really not working for me. Please help me Sheryl, i will be really glad..

26. This worked exactly for me the first try on my Windows 7 machine when I had this problem installing an iTunes update. I am so glad I found your solution.

27. hello sheryl.
    Windows media player doesn’t work
    it always says server execution failed.

    can you help me with this?
    thanks

28. Worked great for me. Thanks to you.

29. I’m stuck in the properties dialog box, I can’t change it from manual to disabled , it won’t let me, Please HELP!! I’m using Windows 8.

30. If you are on Windows 8 then open Command Prompt (as administrator) and run the following command -> net stop msiserver

31. Sheryl, you are amazing.

32. Worked for me, but have to keep repeating it. Thanks though.

33. Thank you very much I was facing this problem from many months but with your help now everything is going smoothly, even though It doesn’t worked permanently but still I am very relaxed and enjoying it, Thanks again.

34. It worked!! Thank you!

35. that solved one problem thank you !! Anyone know how to stop updates from failing to install?

36. Than you very much. A big help.

37. Hi Sheryl,

    I need to install Adobe cs3 suit.
    I already have installed it in my comp, but when i tried to install adobe photoshop cs5 standalone version.the problem occured to the previous version.
    so i determined to uninstall the photoshop and i did.

    now cs3 version stopped working and i tried to uninstall it but by windows default i can’t uninstall it.
    i tried to run the adobe installer where it asks whether you want to remove or install . but it is giving me an error that “Setup Already Running” You can only install one adobe product at a time.
    where there is not installation in process.

    I uninstalled adobe by using iobit-uninstaller application to remove it from my system and cleaned up registry also.

    then i found your post
    i tried it by disabling and again putting on manual mode but i doesn’t work!

    Hope you’ve got a solution.

    I can’t re-install cs3 and can’t remove it from the control panel program and features

    please help

38. I wrote another post about problems installing and uninstalling the Adobe suite. Did you see that?

    http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2009/02/problems-removing-and-installing-adobe-cs4/

39. Brilliant. It worked and much better than all the other “solutions” I was able to find on the net.

    I looked at several and they were all mumbo jumbo. Until I got to this one.

    Thanks again
    Bono

40. OSMMMMM!!!!!!! it works

41. thanks a lot!!!! it works….

42. I simply stopped the service and restarted the install and the problem was solved.
    Good tip though

43. Hi Sheryl,
    Your tip is greatly appreciated. Sometimes the simple solutions are often the best.

44. I would never have thought of this. Not in a trillion lifetimes. Thanks. Please date me xx

45. I’m happy to have helped. 🙂

46. Sheryl,

    I can’t tell you the countless hours I’ve spent with a countless number of supposed “solutions” to this problem – from Microsoft and numerous other sources. None of them worked.

    Your simple method worked like a charm and I can’t thank you enough. In addition, I was able to see which program had bollixed up my Windows Installer in the 1st place.

    You’re an angel – thanks again.

47. My “Startup Type” is greyed out and I can not change it. Now what?

48. I really want to try your method, since I see it has worked for a lot of people. I followed your steps exactly up until I opened the window with the “disable” drop down list. For some reason, the arrow is faded out, and I can’t do anything to change it. I really want my computer to work properly again, and I don’t know why I can’t select “disable” to change it. I am running Windows 8. Do you have any suggestions?

49. thank you so much. this has saved me from a ton of headache i was having with a server over this weekend. have my babies plz

50. thanks saved my neck

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