How to Reinstall Windows Installer Package

Crucial to installing and uninstalling programs from your computer, the Windows Installer Package is a very essential part of the operating system, that if uninstalled, could cause programs to malfunction or stay installed after you've requested them to be removed. This article will cover the basics of what the installer package does and how you can reinstall it if it is no longer installed on your computer.

Installer Package Basics

Firstly, what does the installer package do? The Windows Installer Package allows developers to include an .MSI file with each application installation that contains specific instructions that the computer can use to understand how to install, modify, and uninstall the program. If an application doesn't come with an .MSI file, one can be created by the user to be able to properly get rid of the program they want. If, however, the Windows Installer Package is no longer installed on your computer, any .MSI files that exist from remaining programs will not be able to be interpreted or used. That means that if your installer package disappears, you won't be able to install or uninstall programs that you'd like.

Reinstalling Windows Installer Package

If you find yourself without the installer package on your computer, don't worry. Reinstalling the package is a very simple process.

1. While an update is available on the Microsoft website with a quick Google search, it takes a bit more effort to find the full package for those folks that need a complete reinstallation. I like to use a site called "SoftwarePatch," as they have the latest Windows Installer Full Package for you to download. The first step is to obviously download the package.
2. Exit out of any programs you're currently running and install the installer package to your computer. It may seem like things shouldn't work considering that you're missing the program that allows you to install programs, but the Windows Installer Package will install just fine even without the ability to interpret .MSI files.
3. Restart your computer. It's important to restart your machine to ensure that everything is properly installed and that no lingering installation fragments are left unused.
4. Next, you're going to want to update the installer package if at the time of reading this article, the link given above is not the latest versions of the installer package. You can head over to Microsoft's website and do a search for the latest version of the installer package to update your own. It's important to perform this update as some newer programs require the latest version of the installer package to install or uninstall correctly.
5. The last step is of course to test that the newly reinstalled package works correctly.

Repair

If your installation package hasn't been uninstalled but has become corrupted, you can follow the instructions in the link below to manually repair the installer package that you have installed. It's a bit more tedious and confusing to beginner computer users to work through, but the directions are detailed and they shouldn't be too difficult to understand if you take them one step at a time.