Easiest thing to ask is, did you disable your antivirus program before you attempted to install the program?

Quote:Is there a way to repair windows installer in XP without reinstalling windows of course, when I try to install an application that uses this installer, it keeps looping with "Preparing to install" even if I hit cancel or the big X :x . I can't install a thing that requires it.

I had a similar problem with disk cleanup in the past. There was a registry tree I needed to empty and it worked after that. My guess is that it's probably a similar situation here.

I can install the same programs on another machine fine even with antivirus active. So antivirus is probably not the problem.

Problem solved.

Quote:Problem solved.You going to share how?

I searched google for "windows installer XP repair" and tried different things listed. I'm not sure which one worked though. I also freed some space on the C drive. Maybe that was the problem, but it is, the installer is stupid for not telling us.