I'm just going to throw this out as I have been guilty of this in the past....you're doing this on the server?

Could you export the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\B29A3732C1C117E44B49C59AF769AA91 subtree and paste the results here from the reg file

How about

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\B29A3732C1C117E44B49C59AF769AA91

Check the properties on the following two files, if they are set to READ ONLY change the permissions and see if it works.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcp71.dll

C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcr71.dll

Your off? I couldn't even ask the right question :crazy:

The return value 3 is just one of those generic fatal error notifications that MS comes out with, kinda frustrating a...

ok, lets go with 20 lines above :unsure:

Can you search your log folder for the text string "value 3" and post the 10 or so lines above it? This should give a more helpful message.

Tried reinstalling Windows Installer 4.5?

Thats quite a common problem.

Might be worth creating a new account with sysadmin permissions and taking all rights away from sa

Did you check out this kb article? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959077

Is there anything else in he logs besides the error 126?

Have you turned on auditing on the folders and seen if that produces an issue?

Are you able to access, open and write to the file outside of sql using the...

Anything else in the log or event log items?

select * from syscomments

Use a separate query which returns a full list of the state_names and utilize that.

Please do not cross-post.

Refer to your other entry at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic625641-357-1.aspx