policies prevent this installation

[rmtrail]

Can you explain the following Error Message, when trying to load on new software.

Windows Installer

The system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation.

The OS is Windows XP Pro, without SP2.

It first came to my attention when updating .Net Framework from the Microsoft web site, the update install would not work. It now does not let me load Microsoft Office 2000.

Am not sure if this is related but, a CAD program (IntelliCAD) loads OK but I cannot run the VBA which comes with it. I am able to do so on another machine.

I have not knowingly changed any of the administrator's policies, and when I checked the local policies they all look OK.

Richard Trail

[pthomas]

May be a stupid question, but can you verify that the account your using has administrative access on that computer?

Paul

[rmtrail]

Are there any stupid questions when it comes to this?

Yes I do log on as Aministrator.

[pthomas]

Well, just because you logon as "administrator" doesn't mean that you have admin access. Double check and make sure that the user "administrator" is still a member of the administrators group. It may be a good test to make a new user, add them to the admins group and try loading the same software and see if the error crops up again. If it does then I'll bet that there is a local security setting preventing software installs. But right now I'm still leaning towards an account restriction.

I work in a place where we have most users setup either as power users or just normal users. Power users can still install most all software, but occasionally a program needs to write to part of the registry that a power user doesn't have access to. When that happens because of an account restriction, you get that darn error message.

Is this computer a member of a domain or is it just a stand-alone PC? Also, if its part of a domain, do you have any group policies configured?

Paul

[IcemanND]

is the MSI service running or restricted somehow?

[nolookingca]

Did you apply any sort of "tweaks" that changed the policy? (Or any software install that may have done it)

Iceman's theory seems a bit more likely. Did you check all the policies?

[rmtrail]

The Administrator account is still a member of the Adminstrators group. I tried logging on with another account with administrators rights but with the same result.

The computer is not part of a domain.

Is the MSI service running or restricted? Well I checked the policy settings and didn't find any reference to MSI. What I did find was the Windows Installer service which was set to Manual.

No I have not knowingly applied any tweaks to the policies, I left the settings as originally set up.

Have I checked all the settings? How would I know? Sorry that may be a bit flippant but it is pretty confusing looking at these things when you only check them out occasionally. What I have NOT found was any setting which I could identify as the one which prevents the installation of software. I am sure that it exists but I just cannot put my finger on it and say THAT'S IT!