How To Fix Error 2908 When Installing Programs On Your PC

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2908 Error

Error 2908 is an error that appears when you attempt to install a program on your PC. It is caused when a certain “component” cannot be installed onto your system, which basically means that either one of the applications or files that the installer needs to place on your PC cannot be installed. This issue is generally caused by a lack of file-editing permissions on your system, but can also be caused by the likes of registry errors & other problems as well – all of which should be fixed if you want your computer to run as smoothly as possible again.

What Causes Error 2908?

The 2908 error will show up as:

Internal Error 2908. Could not register component <ID>

Error 2908. Could not register component [2].

The causes of these messages are as described – in that the installation cannot install the components required. The “components” of software are basically the files used by the installed program to help it run as smoothly as possible.

These errors all originate due to the fact that your PC cannot access the required files or folders it needs. This could be due to a number of reasons including the fact you may not have sufficient privilages to install software or amend files on your profile. This prevents Windows from accessing the files it needs and so Error 2908 will appear. You may also have a corrupt / damaged registry on your system, which will prevent the installation of any software onto your PC.

How To Fix Error 2908

Step 1 – Run Step With Different User Profiles

Since this problem is mainly caused by either faulty profiles or profiles that do not have the correct permissions, it would be wise to run the setup in different user profiles. You should attempt to install the software in all the profiles on your system, until you find one that works. You should then either: change the permissions of the profile that it would not install on, or delete it as it may be corrupt.

Profiles have different permissions allowing different users access to a select level of file. If the user cannot be trusted with installing software, this could be childrens account, then Windows will not allow the installation to go ahead. Always make sure you have the correct permissions before you attempt to install software.

Step 2 – Turn Off User Profiles Before Setup

If the above step did not work, this would be your next step. This will eliminate any problems with the profiles, but it does mean that other users cannot use the computer until you have completed this step. To turn off the profiles, you should:

• Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Double Click Passwords
• Click the User Profiles tab > Click All users of this computer use the same preferences and desktop settings
• Click OK. Restart the computer if prompted to do so.
• Install software

This will eliviate any potential problems that the profiles are causing.

Step 3 – Clean The Registry

• Download this registry cleaner

The ‘registry’ is a common cause of the 2908 error, and other installation errors, because of the way it’s used to install programs onto your PC. This is basically a database which your system uses to keep all the settings & information that it requires to use on your system, and is used to store the likes of a program’s recently opened files, etc. Whenever you install a program onto your PC, the registry is being used 100’s of times to place a number of different settings onto your system. However, this often causes a problem because this database is continually being used so much that many of its files become damaged – leading it to run extremely slowly & unreliably. To fix this, you should use a registry repair tool to fix any potentially damaged registry settings on your system – which can be downloaded below: