The loader can not find the ‘C:\DOCUME~1\……\InstMsiW.exe’ file neccesary to load the Windows Installer.

Tip Summary

1. Run the Setup.
2. Leave the error dialog window open.
3. Navigate to the folder, one level above the one listed in the error dialog window.
4. Copy the listed folder.
5. Close the error dialog.
6. Copy a copy of the "InsMsiW.exe" file to the copied folder.
7. Rename the copied folder, removing the "Copy of " from the name.
8. Run the setup from the copied folder.

Detail

OK, so I was building a new Office 2007 server VPC and I wanted to install the Send a Smile/Frown (SASsetup.exe) on the server.  My client VPC running Windows XP ran the SASsetup.exe installation just fine.

The Send a Smile/Frown tool is the coolest thing I’ve used in a Beta program and it works just great on the client side so I thought it a good idea to also have it available on the server side of things.

The server is running Windows Server 2003.

I double clicked the SASsetup.exe file and what do you know… I got the following error:

 

As you can see, the installer refuses to run.

This intrigued me and I figured there simply had to be a workaround for it. 

So I asked my friend Google.

He didn’t seem to know too much about the topic. 

Now THAT really got my curiosity going! 

First I reran the setup again, but this time I did NOT click the "OK" button to close the error dialog window.

I opened a Windows Explorer window and navigated my way to the folder that the error dialog mentioned.

The folder looked like this:

I then copied all the files in the folder to the clipboard and navigated up one folder level.

I created a new folder at this level and copied the files into it.

Next I did a search for the "InsMsiW.exe" file on the server.

Obviously and to no surprise I could not find it on the server VPC.

So I then did a search on the client VPC and tada!

I found the file.

Next I copied the the "InsMsiW.exe" file from the client VPC to the same folder.

Finally, I copied the name of the previous temp folder "IXP000.TMP" in this case, to the clipboard.

I then switched back to the error dialog window and clicked the "OK" button.

You will notice Windows cleaning up and removing the IXP000.TMP folder.

At this point, I simply renamed my temp folder to the IPX000.TMP name leaving it looking like this:

At this point, all I had to do was double clikc the "Setup.exe" file to launch the installer.

Here’s the evidence!

The installer completed successfully and I finally had my smileys!

Later
C