Windows Installer Error – “Installshield error 1500”
So I finally upgraded my laptop to Windows 7 from (shudder) Vista. Not a big deal, just pop in a new hard drive (four times larger than old one). Boot from the install CD and go to town. After the os install, now all the other Microsoft products (Visual Studio, SQL Server, Service Packs, etc.).
Now the issue hits. Something goes wrong and now I am getting the message that an install is in progress and I can’t install anything else. The infamous “Installshield error 1500: Another installation is in progress”.
The fix is fairly simple, at least on Windows 7. Run ‘Regedit’ to edit the registry. Find the Key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\InProgress” and delete it (don’t just remove the current value but delete the entire key value). Check to see if the msiserver process is running (in the Task Manager) – it it is kill it. Check to see if the msiserver service is running (Control Panel – Administrative Tools – Services) and stop it if it is.
Now you can install whatever it is you were attempting to when you got the error.
