I have had this problem for a couple of months now. Hope someone here can help.
Msiinstaller keeps popping up trying to install Roxio, which already is installed. It pops up when I click on Roxio or when I copy and paste or cut and paste, click on my computer ect. Message says, Please wait while windows configures Roxio then I click on cancel around 10-15 times, The last window always says, there was a problem authenticating your version please make sure your system is set to the current date. Which it is.
I go to services and I disable Windows Installer, but then when I need it I have to go back and enable it. Then it pops up all over the place and takes a while to stop all of this. In task manager it (msiinstaller) uses 99% CPU and this bogs the system down. If I stop the process it just comes right back again. It is a pain. I have looked for help everywhere. Found something about it on Microsoft help- Windows Installer CleanUp Utility but it involves office 2007 which I don’t have. Also in my event viewer I have hundreds of warnings and errors all msiinstaller event #s 1001 & 1004, of course no more information on them. Roxio works just fine after I click off all the installation windows. Takes about 5 minutes of clicking but finally they all go away. I have the most current version of msiinstaller. I have scanned for virus’s spy & malware, I believe my system is clean.
I’m running XP home service pack2
On a Gateway pentium4 with 1.5 gig ram. I would really appreciate any help. Thank you and sorry this is so long but tried hard to condense..
Jo

Chances are you have a registry entry which keeps calling the ms-installer (hense .msi) installer program.
Get Ccleaner (CCleaner - Home) and commit a neatness on your computer. Use the registry cleaner tool to clean the registry, but in that tool, use the startup application to see what all starts with your computer. I'm thinking you'll find a reference for the installer in there. You can disable or delete it. Use Disable to test and delete once you're sure.
Of course, use the registry backup tool before you clean the registry.

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Hi,
First ..thank you for your suggestion. I ran CCleaner There were tons of references to ms installer. I fixed all of them. There is nothing in startup but 6-8 things I need to run, nothing referencing ms installer. It took me almost a half hour to get my email and get to your post this morning (I forgot to disable msiinstaller before shutting down last night) This seems to be getting worse, even after I disable ms. It takes around 10 minutes to actually stop with all the messages. My pc bogs down so bad I can barely get to services.
I’m thinking I should uninstall msi and reinstall it. Will I be able to re-install without (it) You know what I mean? What do you think?
I read some thing about registry cleaners cleaning the install files out of some programs and causing problems. I have been using CCleaner for a couple of months now, maybe ran it 3 times total. Uninstalling Roxio is such a hassle I don’t even want to think about that. Thanks again. Jo

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have my problem solved.
I think it was what I suspected. My CCleaner looked at Roxio's installation file as not necessary and I deleted it. I let all the install messages go until I was asked for the disk. I put the disk in even though I know it is installed and works great. In 2 seconds it was fixed.
That is my take on all of this. I know nothing about pc's. I still don't know why a copy and paste command would bring up my ms installer, but that is not a problem anymore sooo.... Thank you to all who pondered my question and to all who gave a suggestion of what you thought was going on.
Jo