Software Pick of the Week: SafeMSI
Software Pick of the Week January 1st, 2008
So, your clients virus-infested system is right in front of you. It’s so bogged down with viruses and spyware that it barely runs in “normal” mode.
However . . .
It boots pretty well in safe mode. You have some cool tools that can exorcise those demons from the box, but in the machine’s current state there is no way you are getting any apps installed. What to do?
If you have been in the computer repair business for any length of time, you have seen something similar to this. Normally, it would take a lot of fancy maneuvering to get the PC to run in normal mode. You have to do this because in safe mode the Windows Installer Service will not function. Without the Windows Installer Service, you can’t install your favorite anti-virus and anti-spyware tools to get the job done.
Well, here is a shortcut for you: SafeMSI. It was developed by Harry Bates, at Rock Systems and Development. SafeMSI allows you to install software in safe mode. Yes, you heard right . . . in SAFE MODE.
How do you use it? Easy. Just boot a computer into safe mode, run the executable file, and then install whatever you need. I can’t guarantee that you will remove whatever has taken control of the system, but this awesome little .exe will certainly cut down on the time it takes you to get software installed on an infected system. This is definitely a file to keep handy (on your USB flash drive).
There doesn’t seem to be a primary download point for SafeMSI, so I will post the file here, until someone complains.


May 6th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Thank you for this! The original download location seems to have evaporated.
-CN
February 10th, 2009 at 8:58 am
SafeMSI.exe – THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for hosting this since I can’t find it anywhere else!
May 20th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
thanks for hosting this. I found another site but it was broken.
this will definitely come in handy…working on a pc right now that blue screens in normal mode in about 10 seconds…but safe mode works fine. Debugging tools just points me to csrss.exe causing a fault…and a software driver could be the problem, but of course they don’t get specific about what kind of driver!
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my site? Thank you in advance.