Since yesterday evening I've been unable to install additional programs; attempts to do so receive an "installation is already in progress"-type error. I've rebooted twice and can see one persistent instance of msiexec.exe running under SYSTEM authority in the task manager. When this process is killed another spawns shortly thereafter.
The problem started some-time after using Web Platform installer to install SQL Server Management Studio Express and Silverlight 3 tools. SSMSE installed without a problme, but Silverlight failed. A more careful reading of the description pointed out that the Silverlight package was for Visual Studio 2008, whereas I only have VSTS2010 Beta running on my machine.
Sysinternals procexp shows one persistent instance of msiexec that remains running and occasionally spawns a second instance which runs then dies. procexp shows the persistent instance churning the registry and file system, with a (long) repeating pattern of querying Visual Studio 9.0 locations, C:\Windows\Installer\ .tmp and .rbs files.
My assumption is that the installation is continuing to attempt, and fail, to install the Silverlight tools--which was initiated using Web Platform Installer. Any advice on breaking the cycle would be greatly appreciated. If there is particular details I can gather I'd be glad to do so.
Here's the most meaningful data I've found so far, taken from the Application Event Log:
(These events repeat consistently)
Warning 8/21/2009 12:05:37 AM MsiInstaller 1001 None
Warning 8/21/2009 12:05:37 AM MsiInstaller 1004 None
Information 8/21/2009 12:05:34 AM RestartManager 10001 None
Information 8/21/2009 12:05:34 AM MsiInstaller 1042 None
Information 8/21/2009 12:05:34 AM MsiInstaller 1035 None
Information 8/21/2009 12:05:34 AM MsiInstaller 11728 None
Information 8/21/2009 12:04:41 AM RestartManager 10000 None
Information 8/21/2009 12:04:41 AM MsiInstaller 1040 None
Details of Event ID 1004:
Detection of product '{AA4A4B2C-0465-3CF8-BA76-27A027D8ACAB}', feature 'VSTA_IDE_12590_x86_enu', component '{FF4A39EF-8F8B-4557-9F81-50DC44C6D30A}' failed. The resource 'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies\en\' does not exist.
Details of Event ID 1001:
Detection of product '{AA4A4B2C-0465-3CF8-BA76-27A027D8ACAB}', feature 'VSTA_IDE_12590_x86_enu' failed during request for component '{FB603825-921B-4781-9FF3-1B1800281E29}'