I have an answer to: Windows Installer Appears Every Time I Start an Application:

I was having this same problem at work and I found a great way of Killing it. You DO need to remember what you did, though, as my fix will prevent further updates to your system. It does work though. First, make sure the process is not running (Kill it from task manager, if need be). Then simply go to the file itself and rename it!


The file in question here is:
C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe

I renamed my file XxXmsiexec.exeXxX

I do this to all sorts of annoying restarting files and it has not really broken anything yet. If you do encounter problems after you rename a file, just remove the XxX's and the problem will be fixed.


I always rename with the XxX's so I can do a search on my PC for XxX and then I can see all of the files that I renamed. Works like a charm.

**NOTE** You should really have a good idea of the file you are about to rename as you could crash your system to the point that you need to access your harddrive from another PC to rename the file. Msiexec.exe is not one of those that will do that, but if you get imaginative enough, I am sure you could succeed in disabling your PC by renaming a critical file.

I would suggest doing a lookup on the file you are planning to rename on the internet to see exactly what it is. If it is non-essential...rename/Kill it.


You can use a variant of this method to stop recurring spyware apps as well. Basically, delete the original file create a blank text file, rename that text file to match the spyApp then edit the security permissions to deny any changes to that file by anyone.

I consider this to be a brute force solution to problems, but sometimes a hammer is required to drive a nail.

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