Error 0x80072ee6 in Windows Live Installer

Question

I got a message saying "A new version of MSN Live Messenger is available", but the installer failed with error "aborted:0x80004004".

I googled it a bit and found this suggestion to run the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility. That website looks dubious, but the tool is from Microsoft so I figured it won't do much damage.

Anyway, after running that tool I tried running the installer again, but now I got a new error message "OnCatalogResult: 0x80072ee6", and the installer quits.

Googling for this did not help too much. There are some suggestions to do regsvr32 MSXML3.dll, but that didn't help me, plus it seems like they're talking about a different situation (problem with messenger vs problem with installer).

Any suggestions?

Solution

OK, following advice I found here, I removed all the Windows Live applications from my computer, and then tried installing again.

Using the web installer did not work, though, and gave me the same error. I then downloaded the wlsetup-all.exe, and the installation worked.

This address is given in the above link for the full Live Messenger Installer:
http://g.live.com/1rewlive3/en/wlsetup-all.exe
I chose to download from the same address as the web installer I got in download.live.com, so I can't vouch for that address.

I don't know if removing the existing apps helped at all, but Messenger remembered all my settings, so I'm happy.