Ouch… That took WAYYY to long to figure out 🙁
Today I installed a new Microsoft LifeCam (I think they call it.) In any case, once installed, I wanted to play around with the Video Conferencing. However before I could, it told me I needed the Windows Live Messenger. Conveniently, once the Camera was installed, the LifeCam 2.0 software provided a link to the Windows Live Installer – WLInstaller.exe (here’s where the problem hit me.)
When I launched the Windows Live Installer, I received the error 
Message:
There was a problem with the installation. Windows Live Suite was not installed.
System error details
Code: 0x8000ffff
Description: Catastrophic failure
Wow, that doesn’t sound good at all. Hmm, I wonder what the problem is?
After 30-40 minutes of messing around, it finally dawned on me that I have the Windows Live BETA for Windows Live Writer installed on this XP box. I confirmed this by looking in my control panel.
I confirmed my suspicion after doing some testing. The only way to get Windows Live Messenger installed would be to grab the BETA copy of the Windows Installer. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard to find.
In retrospect, it would have been nice for MSFT to throw me an error message with a little more info. I’m not asking for much. Perhaps a simple “Beta Installation of Windows Live Detected, unable to continue the install.” Am I asking too much?
Hopefully, this helps out a few readers who run into the same problem.
Seems like its easier for the devs to write catastrophic failure.
If error, Call Catastrophic Failure 😉
if you had a previous install on your pc you should remove it before you install the latest.
if problem persists then get help.
I hate this thing. I am trying to fix it for an hour and a half!!! I hope this will help me…
@Nezzy – Keep us updated! This was just what fixed it for me. Good Luck!
Thx for the help got this problem while installing windows live lol
awesome, my problem was fixed, msn 8.5 is now installed instead of 9 🙂
hey is there any stand-alone(offline) set up for Windows Live???
thanks in advance
Hi, can any body suggest how this issue got fixed….
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