Mystery of the Missing msnmsn.inf on XP SP3

Posted by Timothy • Topics: Tech Monday, July 07, 2008 03:16 PM

I'm not sure if this is related to the installation of Service Pack 3 on this XP box or not, but I recently ran into the following error after running "Add/Remove Windows Components" from within "Add/Remove Programs."

Error Message 1

For those unable to see the above image, it says, "Setup was unable to open information file msnmsn.inf. Contact your system administrator. The specific error code is 0x2 at line 0."

Then you click okay and you get the following dialog.

Error Message 2

"The application could not be initialized." Ahh, the death throws of the Windows setup application...

Well, from the error, it sure sounds like something is failing to parse an INF file. But why? This sounds like a job for ProcMon!

Sure enough, searching the ProcMon results for msnmsn.inf after running the setup again shows us the following...

ProcMon

File not found! Why on Earth would that suddenly go missing? No clue how this happened. But here's how you fix it. Copy the msnmsn.inf from C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 into C:\Windows\System32\Setup.

But wait! There's more! After doing this, I got a different error. This time it said it couldn't find ocmsn.dll. It turns out that C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 has a copy of ocmsn.dll as well, so I copied it to C:\Windows\System32\Setup.

Fixed!

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Comments (29)

29 comments on article "Mystery of the Missing msnmsn.inf on XP SP3"

Nelos

7/19/2008 10:27 AM

I LOVE U! IT WORKS :)

Eric V.

8/6/2008 11:35 AM

Great suggestion. I ran into the above issue also. I copied the file into the recommended folder, the ran the Add/Remove Program again this time it gave a different file name, I simply continued copying the file names it was referring to and after 4 tries and 4 different files it worked. Thanks for the tip.

3l3ctr0du3nd3

8/6/2008 2:03 PM

wanna marry me?????

juanjuanjo

9/4/2008 9:54 AM

Thank you

Scarface

9/11/2008 4:45 AM

Nice ... 10x ... For me it only asked for the msnmsn.inf, after I copied the file it was ok. Anyway the reason I run the "Add/remove windows components" is the missing of the volume control in "Accessories>Entertainment" section, after I solved the above problem I couldn't add or find the volume control ... the sound is very low and from the cmedia control panel I can't make it louder. I'll post the solution when I'll find it.

Eric

9/19/2008 3:45 PM

Thanks, worked for me also. Not looking to get married, though, I am pleased with your post.

linda

10/5/2008 10:38 PM

i did what you said and know it wants me to configer my control panel how do i do that?

Geb

11/8/2008 8:34 AM

It worked! Thanks!

Reiner

11/8/2008 2:10 PM

Thank you! It worked like a charm! You're the hero of the day!

Zero-G

11/26/2008 5:17 PM

Wierd and worked Thanks!!!

rafa

11/27/2008 3:16 PM

Eres el puto jefe!!!!!!!!!!
gracias tio!!!!

wissam

1/13/2009 5:50 AM

Thank you worked 100% even thought it gave me the error that OcEntry.inf is missing but i added the OCmsn.dll file and it worked perfectly

Moin

1/30/2009 2:50 PM

In my case I ended up copying a dozen files. Some required files were not available on my system. (www.infdump.com) came in very handy. Thank you for your suggestion, it sure did work.

Maurizio

4/13/2009 8:22 AM

Thanks a lot....
You are great..

Fhwoarang

5/19/2009 8:31 PM

I also would marry you.

ezequiel

5/22/2009 9:51 PM

gracias busque esto por todas partes!
me salvaste!!
thank you!!

Al

6/25/2009 7:26 AM

Thank you!

binary

7/4/2009 1:00 AM

Thanks you are a life saver and yes I'm married

Hector

8/12/2009 3:16 AM

Thank you. I started seeing it after i installed sp3.

viv

11/2/2009 12:32 PM

Man! This issue was driving me nuts... thanks a ton for this solution.

vargas

11/14/2009 9:55 PM

Exelente, funciono perfectamente!!!
Muchas Gracias!!!

finnah

12/8/2009 2:47 PM

great tip !

it worked :D
thanks

leandrw

4/6/2010 9:20 PM

Walew!

jo w

8/31/2010 6:36 PM

Thanx m8, it's even brilliant for those who are computer illiterate..

eishi

2/25/2011 12:56 PM

perfect !!

Jorge Romero

6/26/2011 8:36 PM

Thank´s you so much ... very fast to repair ... i dont lose time ... very great work ...

vicky

10/23/2012 12:46 PM

worked

Alex

11/13/2012 7:47 PM

wow man it works!! after 2 hours searchin how to fix this add remove windows components error i finally found this site and you are a genius man :D

Juan

2/17/2013 9:46 AM

Microsoft Must Hire You To solve the problems they create!

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