Sometimes an error message that appears on screen is "Error 1603: A fatal error occurred during installation". When you click on OK button, Windows Installer installation rolls back.

Common Causes:

– You are trying to install the Installer to an encrypted folder.
– The drive is used as a substitute drive on system on which you are trying to install Microsoft Installer.
– Your System account does not have complete control / permissions.
– Windows internal setting is corrupted.

Solution:

There are various causes behind this problem; however, you should perform one of the following task depending on the issue.

Install Windows Installer to non-encrypted folder:

It would be wise to install Microsoft Windows Installer to a non-encrypted folder. Installing Microsoft Installer to an encrypted folder may result in to Windows Installer error 1603.

Do not install the Installer to a virtual drive:

Virtual drive is created to assign a drive letter to a local path on your folder and when you try to install Windows Installer to this folder then error 1603 occurs.

Grant Full Control to system

When error 1603 occurs on system because system account does not have full permissions to the folder then you need to follow the steps given below to grant required access.

1. Click on My Computer on the desktop.
2. Select the drive to which you want to install Windows Installer package. Right click on it and select Properties.
3. Select security tab and perform following actions
> Make sure that system account is there in the Group of user names box.
4. If it is not present then follow these steps:
> click on Add button.
> Select system in the "select users or groups.
> Select Name filed and then click on Add button.
> Click on OK.
5. Under "Allow" select "full control" from "permissions and now click on Advanced button.
6. Select "replace permissions on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects" and click OK.
7. Restart your machine.

Fix Windows Registry:

When registry settings are corrupted then you can not install Microsoft Windows Installer on your PC. To fix this problem you need to repair Windows registry with some reliable registry cleaner and PC optimizer software.

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