Windows Installer Service (msiexec.exe) still present in task manager

[msnews.microsoft.com]

Can someone please tell why the Windows Installer Service (msiexec.exe) is
present in task manager (All counter's are Zero eg. CPU) once the
Install/Uninstall of an MSI has finished. I'm using Windows Installer 2.0 on
Win2K SP3. This seems to occur for about 10% of the MSI's I run, most
complete the install/uninstall and the msiexec.exe process disappears as I
would expect.

Unfortunately this is causing some problems when deploying through SMS. I
have written an App that
runs the msiexec /x {}and waits for the process id to end before continuing
with the next program, but
as I've said before the Windows Installer seems to still be active.

Anyone any Ideas????

[Phil Wilson]

Because it's a service that runs all the time. You'll see two msiexec.exes when you install
something, a user-mode one that drives the user interface section, and the service that does the
actual installation and stays behind after the installation has finished.

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[Phil Wilson]

As far as I can tell, running msiexec.exe /x {guid} is synchronous. When I wait for the process to
finish it works - it doesn't step past until the process is finished. It might help if you post your
app's code where it starts the uninstall and waits.

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[Carolyn Napier [MSFT]]

One additional note here: Beginning with Windows Installer version 2.0, the Windows Installer
service will automatically shut down after 10 minutes of no install activity. The service is start
on-demand so it will automatically start up when a new install is invoked.

For previous versions, the installer service would remain running once started unless you explicitly
stopped it ("net stop msiserver" from the cmd line or service control manager snap-in to shut it
down) or rebooted the machine.

--
- Carolyn Napier
Microsoft Windows Installer Team

Check out the Windows Installer FAQ at:
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/community/centers/management/msi_faq.asp>

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