Microsoft Windows Installer Cleanup Utility

Many of you might have seen automatic start up of Windows Installer, which tries to install “something”. This can happen at any time, like when you click on that Word document, instead of opening the file, Windows Installer pops up trying to install some component which may require installation CDs (See the screenshot).



In most of the cases, this is not due to incomplete or incorrect installation of the software, but it’s due to incorrect configuration of Windows Installer itself. In order to overcome this, the configuration details of Windows Installer for that specific software should be reset.

There is one nifty tool from Microsoft aptly called as “Windows Installer Cleanup”. This program lists all the software which has been installed by Windows Installer. You can select the entry of which the Installer configuration details should be reset. This does not remove either the software in question or the Windows Installer, but it removes only the configuration details. So when you encounter the automatic startup of Windows Installer trying to install certain software, you can give a try to clean the configuration details, instead of reinstallation of the software itself.

Even after using the Cleanup utility, the corresponding software fails to work, and then you have to reinstall the software in question.

Get it here

PS: I got to know about this tool from TonyKlein, and i must thank him.