Windows Server 2003 VERY slow installing applications

[RandyRiegel]

I have Windows 2003 R2 SP2 running on a system with 2ghz processor and 2gb of memory. The server doesn't do much it's just a terminal server for a small office. Everything on it is very fast except for installing applications. It literally almost took 8 hours for Crystal Reports to install on this system. I thought it was a fluke. Now I'm trying to install Microsoft Visio and it has been installing for almost 2 hours now and is only about halfway done. Has anyone on here ever had this problem before? I've seen by googling that other people have had this problem but I couldn't actually find a fix for it? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Randy

 

[dberg35]

Check task mgr to see what is eating up your resources. I have worked with TS for years and never had this issue. I do suggest you do the install when no users are logged in and at the console.

 

[RandyRiegel]

I have checked all that. When I tried to install Visio the other day no one was logged into it. I checked taskmanager and CPU was only around 10% while installing. The Windows 2003 install is only a week old, they had it on a really slow computer until I did the fresh install last week. I only have the minimum stuff needed for the applications on it so the computer is not cluttered up or anything. And like I said it is ONLY slow when doing installs, everything else is fast.

 

[dberg35]

Ok then are you installing from a CD/DVD or a file on the server? If you are using a cd then try copying it to a file then install. Also you might want to check your hard drives one could be failing. What RAID setup do you currently have? Also look at the event logs to see if any errors are there.

 

[RandyRiegel]

I noticed it only does this with Windows Installer (msiexec.exe). Other installation packages work fine. I'm just using RAID0 (mirroring). I have installed other downloaded apps that use Install Shield and other install app and this does not happen. It's gotta be something with msiexec.exe...

 

[dberg35]

Update windows installer to the newest version also look at dial a fix, it has fixed many issue for me in the past.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Dial-a-fix.shtml