In my machine Vista 64 ultimate has tons of stuff running in the background which I think I shut everything off. All the updates are installed minus the 32 languages. There was no problem installing 8.1.
1...indexing off
2...restore off on all drives off
3...DEP off
4...Auto update off
5...Auto DVD, CD, etc. off
6...No anti virus istalled
7...Firewall off
8...All fancy GUI stuff off
9...All visual stuff set up same as Classic Windows
10..8.0c, Forge, DVD-A5.0, Cinescore, Acid Pro, CDA, Quicktime, DVIX, NERO, Ultimate S, Gear Shift, Deshaker, Virtual Dub, WAX, New Blue, Neato, and others.
Gigabyte X38 board, 8 gig Kingston ram, EVA 8800 video card, 800 watt power supply.
I really don't think shutting everything off would affect the 8.1 install.
JJK

Yes. UAC is off. I tried turning in ON. Still no luck.
UNDERSTAND that NO 64 bits programs will install. Not just Vegas.

I'll cut to the chase since I've tried all the normal fixes you can get by googling yourself into a stupor. -- I've registered msiexec in safe mode etc etc. .. I've checked the registry and all looks ok...I replaced my main drive with a temporary HD with a fresh install of Vista64 so I could see what a working system looked like (the fresh install had no trouble installing and registering 8.1 with Sony).. I copied the reg keys to my troubled main drive but no joy either...I've run logs of the install to try to debug it that way. I tracked what I could in the logs but all dead ends. I'm not adapt at C++ or DLL's so I get a little lost in the logs but I have enough programming experience to follow in general. Looks to me that the "custom action" is failing - or interrupting the "Action" that's already in progress to "install".

Error 1719 stops the install. This is the same for any 64 bit install (not just Vegas).. Could this be something to do with .NET Framework64 ? I noticed that InstallUtilLib.dll in the Microsoft.NET\Framework64 folder is a larger size than the one in my fresh install of Vista64 that works with a more current creation date. These are very sticky files.

Here's the critical part of the install log.



This system is really not a complicated system. All I run on it are Vegas, Photoshop, Quark, Quickbooks, Word and Excel .. all very standard stuff.
No complicated schemes. All plain vanilla.

Normally windows installer is a manual start, but go to services, set it to AUTOMATIC and see if you can start it..... or just press the start button. If it's working normally you should be able to both start and stop it.

Also.... bring up MSCONFIG, go through the list of services and make sure windows installer is checked.

Just in case you didn't try this (you probably have): Right click the xxx.MSI or the setup.exe bootstrapper (as appropriate) and select Run as Administrator... You might have to uninstall first to give the installer a clean start.

Thanks for your suggestions guys. I have tried these things.
I can "stop" and "start" Windows installer. I've tried "automatic" ..
I've run the bootstrap programs to install "As admin" ..

Windows installer is working on 32 bit programs.

If as you say you're not running a complicated system then it might just be faster simply to reinstall the entire OS.

As has been suggested, reinstalling/repairing the OS would be a good choice. It's not good when you have trouble installing a program.

One other suggestion is to install the recent version of Windows Installer 4.5, if in fact it is possible, since your system is already in a bad state!

I already installed Windows Install 4.5 .. Did it nearly right away. I thought, well this will cure any screwed up DLL's etc...but nada... Frankly, my system is running fine otherwise. It's just something in the 64 bit installation service that stops the install. I wanted to preserve this system to finally LEARN what did it but ... as was very practically suggested by blink .. I'm getting ready to re-install the OS. My copy of Vista64 is an OEM copy so no choice for a repair install. I'll have to nuke the drive and get on with life. Truely, 8.1 Vegas to me is not mission critical. I can do fine with 8.0C. But I'm curious to see those lower rendering time. --

Meanwhile I have used this opportunity to delve into Vista like never before. I thought I was up to the challenge. But looks like Vista wins. This is getting boring. I ran a Unix system for years and it never licked me like this --- We once ran nearly 300 days (uptime) on Unix without re-booting the system.... I'll likely cave in by the week-end (I have one last thing to try), do a full backup (main drive is a raptor 150) -- and do a fresh install on my raptor. I was toying with the idea of buying a new 300 gig Raptor but naaaaah !

What's scary is how complex Windows has become. So threaded! .. Almost nothing is handled in a straight forward way. Especially with permissions and such. The Sony guys who built the package we all load no doubt could have shed some light on my installation log as they understand the calls being made by the C++ etc.. but Sony I understand Sony's reluctance to get into system problems. Can't blame them.

Yep, I think your best bet (seeing as how this seems deeper than normal) it to just wipe it and start over. It's probably some fluke thing that a fresh install would clear up in a heartbeat.

However, I would encourage you not to let one instance of something like this taint your vision of Microsoft. I like (and use) Linux/Kubuntu just as much as the rest of us. But, I think it's a sad state of affairs when people judge Microsoft for every little problem. I could actually say the same for Linux. I've been using Vista for a year and a half (on multiple machines too) and haven't had any problems at all.

@xberk,

As I told you in another thread about this same topic, once the Windows Installer gets muddled up, usually your ONLY option is to reinstall the OS. It's not the Installer program itself that has the problem. It's all the previous installs and uninstalls that are in the Windows registry. Once there is a bad or incomplete install or uninstall, for some reason, the Installer doesn't work correctly. Sometimes, just installing an upgrade to a piece of software, that doesn't remove the previous version's registry settings automatically, is enough to sink the ship.

This problem seems more prevalent on Vista x64. BTW, you probably don't have it installed, but Apple iTunes is notorious for screwing up the installation information in the Windows registry.

You could go through all the installation information in the registry and manually delete anything that doesn't match what is actually installed on your computer, but that is tedious and if you make a mistake and delete the wrong thing, you could make your system non-functional. Microsoft makes an installation "cleanup" tool and you should Google their website to see if there is a version for Vista x64. That may work, but at this point, given everything that you have tried, I doubt it.

You've given it your best shot. I would reinstall Vista x64 and all the software.

I don't have I-Tunes installed.

Really - I am not down on Vista .. For sure, I am not going back to XP .. XP was great but no future in going backwards.

I've learned much more about Vista so I look on the whole thing as positive. I think I'm prepared for a fresh install. We'll soon find out. That's the big lesson here! .. BE PREPARED. I've had enough harddrive failures to have learned that!

Here's the link for the Installer Cleanup Utility:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Here's a KB article from Microsoft that applies to XP, but it also may work with Vista x64 and you could try it as a last resort, before a fresh install:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555175

Thanks JA .. I'll run The Clean up util before I nuke my drive (probably on Sunday)...why not? I've already read the aritlce and as I recall I tried everything except the Clean UP utility .. Thanks again ..