Windows 7, despite the release of newer operating systems of this family, is still one of the most popular and in demand among users around the world, due to its versatility. But even in it, as it turns out, it is not always possible to use some applications installed by the user. Most often, such situations appear even at the installation stage. But why, on Windows 7 , programs are not installed that, in theory, should have worked in it without any problems? There are a lot of reasons for this, which will be discussed later. But only the most basic and most frequently encountered problems are offered for consideration, since it is simply impossible to cover them all, especially if we take into account each specific case of failures and errors.
Why do not install programs on Windows 7: the main reasons
To begin with, let’s dwell on the reasons that cause errors at the very beginning of the installation. Among them, the most important aspects include the following:
- lack of necessary rights for the user;
- blocking installation by antivirus and firewalls;
- system architecture mismatch with installed software;
- Outdated or unsupported hardware and drivers
- incomplete builds of distributions and missing important operating system files;
- Outdated add-on platforms
- residual components of earlier versions of installed applications;
- compatibility issues;
- Damage and errors of MSI files
- exposure to viruses.
Of course, the above list cannot be called absolutely complete and reflects all possible situations, but for the most part it is precisely these reasons that prevent the normal installation of software, among which the leading positions belong to modern computer games and applications for working with multimedia.
Troubleshooting Windows Installer for Windows 7 at the beginning of installation
The elimination of possible failures and errors will begin with the simplest thing - the user has the necessary rights to install some kind of program. It is no secret, after all, that it was in the seventh modification of Windows that the so-called super administrator first appeared with a hidden but constantly active account, which as a user has much more access rights to change system parameters than any other user registered in the system, even from the administrator group. And any program, as you know, except for portable versions, just changes some system options, for example, registering your own dynamic libraries or creating your own keys in the system registry, which requires obtaining the appropriate permission. And if you add here also UAC user account control, it seems that an ordinary user has no privileges at all.
Nevertheless, if the Windows Installer for Windows 7 immediately after the start of the installation displays an error, the situation can be rectified quite simply by running the installer as administrator through the RMB menu on the selected object. After that, the error may disappear. But rely only on this option is not worth it.
Security Software Issues
Now suppose that the installers are launched with the necessary rights, but anyway, programs are not installed on Windows 7. What to do? First, you should read the installation conditions if you are trying to install not the official version of the application, but are using some kind of hacked or user repack.
Although this may equally apply to some versions of legal software, it is sometimes recommended to disable real-time antivirus protection for the duration of the installation, especially if you have some kind of free antivirus installed on your computer like Avast. In principle, similar actions can be performed with the Windows firewall, but in most cases this is not necessary.
System capacity
Now a few words about another situation where programs are not installed on Windows 7. An installer error may occur again and again if your operating system has a different architecture from the one for which the installed application is intended.
In the properties of the computer through RMB, look at a brief description of the system used. If you have Windows 7 x64, there should be no problems, since you can install both 64- and 32-bit programs on this system. But on the contrary - nothing.
Hardware, drivers, and system updates
Sometimes you may encounter problems with hardware installed on the computer, for example, processors that do not support x64 architecture. But, since today it is very rare, mainly conflicts arise, if programs are not installed on Windows 7 under any pretext, they are associated with incorrect installation of drivers, their absence or outdating. The fact that the system itself is able to choose the driver most suitable for some device (as it seems to it) does not mean at all that the equipment running such software will work without failures. In this case, you should install exclusively “native” (preferably updated) drivers by downloading them, for example, from the official site of the device manufacturer.
To automate such processes, you can use special programs for updating drivers like Driver Booster, which find the latest versions of control software with the desired architecture and integrate them into the system without user intervention.
If the necessary driver is not found, in the “Device Manager”, which can be accessed through additional system parameters and the hardware tab, “Control Panel” or the “Run” console by entering the devmgmt.msc command, you should use the information tab and after choosing to display the ID equipment from the list, copy the longest line containing the identifiers VEN and DEV, and then use it to search for the driver, download it and install it yourself. Also, after saving it to the hard drive or external media, you can tell the system to install from the selected location.
Often, modern software products also imply the installation of the latest updates for the operating system itself.
If such packages were not found and integrated into the system automatically, you can manually search for them in the Update Center and then install them at the end of the download.
Unofficial application builds and missing libraries
Sometimes programs on Windows 7 are not installed due to the fact that some unofficial (most often stripped down) repack is used for this, in which important files of the installed application may be missing. In this case, it is better not to engage in experiments, but to find the official release of the program. But it also happens that in the system itself there are no necessary dynamic libraries that are necessary for the application to work correctly. Some advise downloading the missing components yourself, then placing them in the System32 folder, and then registering using the regsvr32 tool. The thing, I must say, is quite tiring.
So isn’t it easier to use the special utility DLL Suite, which is able to automatically detect missing or damaged libraries and load them from the Internet?
Incorrectly installed and outdated add-on platforms
Speaking specifically about games and multimedia, special additional platforms must be installed in any system, without which no such program will simply work. Among them, there are three main ones:
- DirectX
- .NET Framework
- Visual C ++ Redistributable.
The problem here is that if you can find and install the latest versions for the first two platforms directly from the official Microsoft website, then the version of the third component, for example, for several outdated games, does not have to be the latest. In general, the installer should initially have a tool that installs the required platform modification, but if the installer itself is “broken”, this component will have to be integrated into the system independently.
For multimedia, if the user is dealing with programs developed by Apple that have been adapted for Windows 7 x64 or x86, additional components may also be required. Most often, a QuickTime platform is required.
Remains of deleted old versions of programs
Another reason that programs on Windows 7 are not installed may be due to remnants from deleted earlier versions of applications. As you know, a thorough and maximum complete removal of installed programs is one of the weaknesses of all systems of this family. But quite often at the end of such processes, you can find a huge amount of residual components in the form of files, directories and registry keys. Therefore, for the most complete removal of applications, it is better to use automated uninstaller programs (for example, iObit Uninstaller) or to clean the system through the use of optimizers (CCleaner, Advanced SystemCare, etc.).
Using Compatibility Mode
But some outdated applications (or even their installation), which work without problems in earlier versions of Windows, it is sometimes advisable to run using the so-called compatibility mode.
In Windows 7, in this case, the OS will be recognized by the installer or the installed application not as the seventh version, but of an earlier modification. Please note that upgrading the system version is not provided, that is, in the seventh modification there is no compatibility with Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 at all (although theoretically all four systems can ensure the correct operation of the same program). You can select the desired mode through the properties of the launched file, using the property item and the corresponding tab on which the required version of the operating system is selected from the list.
Corrupted installer files and service issues
Finally, one of the most common installation problems concerns damage to the installer itself. In part, this may be due to incomplete download of distributions or installation files packed in archives, sometimes the built-in Windows installer itself may not work correctly, etc.
In the first case, you just need to reload the content, in the second, use the services section (services.msc), stop the Windows Installer service, restart the computer device and turn it on again if activation does not happen automatically.
Viral exposure
Finally, the real scourge of all Windows systems is virus applets. They penetrate the system in various ways, hitting its important components, but most often such threats can be found on all kinds of torrent trackers. Therefore, after downloading files from such Internet resources, they must immediately be checked with some portable scanner. But here it should be clearly understood that not all modern viruses can be detected by antivirus scanners. Some of them (for example, advertising applets, called browser hijackers) can disguise themselves as official affiliate programs and penetrate the system completely legally.