May262012

Why am I seeing a msiexec.exe error in Windows XP when closing Internet Explorer?

Nitin B asks:

When I close Internet Explorer, I am getting msiexec.exe error message. How to correct this error? Thanks.

Browser: IE
System: Windows XP
Tagged: error message, internet explorer, web browser, windows xp

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4 Answers -

0 votes

ha14

May 26, 2012

update Internet Explorer to latest version and see if this can solve the problem

perhaps you have problem with windows installer

try Dialafix
http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Dial-a-fix
use fix windows installer

1. On the Start menu, click “Run:.

2. In the “Open” box, type: msiexec /unreg and then press ENTER.

3. On the “Start” menu, click “Run”.

4. In the “Open” box, type: msiexec /regserver and then press ENTER

scan windows with malwarebytes antimalware then download Windows installer 4.5
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942288
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324638/en

0 votes

Bruce Epper

May 26, 2012

msiexec.exe is the program that installs other programs delivered as .msi files. Apparently when you are trying to close IE, IE is actually attempting to install something that it downloaded. Basically, the host process (iexplore.exe – IE) has launched msiexec.exe to install something on your computer. When you terminate IE, it also sends a signal to terminate all child processes, in this case msiexec.exe. As a result, you get an error message.

The first thing you should do is update your AV software to make sure you have the latest definition files, then run a complete scan of your computer. Have it remove all of the crap that it finds. Repeat the scan until it reports that it did not find anything else.

Next, run a full scan with Malwarebytes or Spybot S&D or similar anti-malware software (again after making sure you have the latest definition files). And again, have it remove all of the crap that it finds. Repeat until it returns no results.

To do either of the scans, you may have to restart your computer in Safe Mode. In any case, as long as you have Antivirus and at least one anti-malware packages installed on your system, you may want to simply boot into Safe Mode and run the scans from there. The scans will generally run faster and do a better job of removing any infections in Safe Mode.

After your scans come up clean, reboot the computer and see if the behavior continues. This should fix the problem, but if it doesn’t, report back to this thread and we can give you further instructions on how to find out what it is attempting to install, where it is coming from, and how to stop it from happening. It can get pretty ugly if we need to go there and in most cases, you would be better off backing up your data files then doing a nuke-and-pave (reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything).