When installing any app using the Windows Installer service, you get error 2203 either by the app’s installer or in the system event logs reported by Windows Installer.
You’ve probably got a permissions issue.
Microsoft and various articles suggest you don’t have all the appropriate permissions to the “install” directory. This is different for every app and is typically CREATED with default permissions, unless it already exists, so what gives?! Some articles suggest the “installer” directory, as in where the Windows Installer files are actually located. This is not true either.
What I discovered, in my case at least, is that the permissions issue was with the current user’s TEMP directory. Once I assigned myself the appropriate permissions for the user temp directory, (ahem, with D7 loaded I went to the user temp dir, right click, and Take Ownership), the error went away and apps magically install.
As a side note, yes the system was infected with malware, which I cleaned off first.
So FYI, try this first when you get error 2203…
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