We all love to install new programs of our choice in our Windows operating system. Sometimes installation of program goes smoothly, if the developer has finely tested the program and its coding is clean. While in some other cases, problems may arise and users are served with different error messages/codes that prohibits him from installing the program. Similarly, different issue may also occur when you uninstall programs. In this article, we’ll fix The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable on Windows 11/10.

Following message appear while attempting installation of program:

FIX The Feature You Are Trying To Use Is On A Network Resource That Is Unavailable
The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

As you see the message doesn’t lets you to install/uninstall programs. Users facing this problem are suggested to ensure that Windows Installer service is running on their system. You can follow below linked guide to learn how to start that service:

Steps to start Windows Installer in 3 different ways

If the issue still persists even after starting Windows Installer service, go ahead and try the fixes mentioned below.

Fix: The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable error on Windows 11/10

Fix 1: Using Program Install And Uninstall Troubleshooter

This problem can be resolved using Microsoft‘s official Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter. The Redmond software giant has already embedded many built-in troubleshooters in Windows 11 but have also created additional troubleshooters like Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter to deal complex situations. You can download this troubleshooter using following link:

DOWNLOAD LINK

It is supposed to work on Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8 and 7.

1. When you download Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter using above link, Windows will automatically run it once it is downloaded. In the window shown below, check Apply repairs automatically and click Next.

FIX The Feature You Are Trying To Use Is On A Network Resource That Is Unavailable

2. Then select whether you’ve issue while installing or uninstalling the program and click justified option.

FIX The Feature You Are Trying To Use Is On A Network Resource That Is Unavailable

3. Moving on, you can then select the program with which you’re facing this issue. Click Next.

FIX The Feature You Are Trying To Use Is On A Network Resource That Is Unavailable

4. If the issue is uninstalling the program, you should choose Yes, try uninstalling. Do same, if case is of installing. Click Next. The troubleshooter will then patch registry and attempt to find and resolve issues automatically.

FIX The Feature You Are Trying To Use Is On A Network Resource That Is Unavailable

Once completed, you can close troubleshooter and return to Desktop if you like. You can now re-try installing/uninstalling the program and it should work. If it doesn’t, check FIX 2.

Fix 2: Using Registry Editor

🛈 Registry Disclaimer: The further steps will involve registry manipulation. Making mistakes while manipulating registry could affect your system adversely. So be careful while editing registry entries and create a System Restore point first.

1. Press W8K + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

Windows 10 Registry Editor

2. In the Registry Editor window, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products

3. Expand Products registry key and you’ll see some long randomly named sub-keys. For each of these sub-keys, in the corresponding right pane, you can use ProductName registry string (REG_SZ) to identify to which program this sub-key belongs. Following that, you’ve to find the correct sub-key for the program with which you’re having issues. Once you spotted correct sub-key, right click on it and select Backup. Save the registry file with .reg extension, in case if is required in future. Then do a right click on same sub-key and select Delete. Click OK in confirmation prompt.

FIX The Feature You Are Trying To Use Is On A Network Resource That Is Unavailable

You can now close Registry Editor and re-try to install/uninstall program and issue should be resolved now.

Video fix

Check out this video fix, if you still have the issue:

Drop us a comment if you still have issue!

Originally version released on Sep 3, 2016. Updated for Windows 11.

22 Comments

Add your comment

  • Nagaraj S

    Its worked Thanks

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad we could help 😎

  • Thierno

    Thanks a lot Sir, you’ve made my day. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Happy to help 😊

  • Spiderkeys

    I been trying to figure that out for years, where I didn’t this program did, I had one OS that has a bunch of software that was impossible to completely uninstall.

  • Milos

    Thank you!! So mucH!!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ You’re most welcome 😊

  • V Tancredi

    Thanks for this, very helpful.

    There is only one thing that’s bugging me. If a program is installed on the machine, removing the windows installer information from the registry doesn’t actually uninstall any of the program’s own registry settings or files on the hard drive, does it? Therefore by applying just this fix you end up with orphaned programs on your machine over time. And heaven help us if it’s a complex program such as Microsoft visual studio, with several underlying technologies also installed, which will now have no link to what invoked them.
    Probably a more comprehensive solution is to script a manual uninstall of the given program along with the removal of the windows installer registry keys, but that may be outside of the scope of your site. Just thought I’d throw it out there.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Agree with your views on this but yes, it’s simply a consumer dedicated site and scripting stuff usually requires developer skills, which the audience is missing, Thanks for your opinion though 😊

  • Adam

    Thank you genius! [FIX 1] solved

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Awesome 😎

  • Sunil Verma

    THANK YOU Dost
    yah Meri Sabse Badi Probalm Thi

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ 😊

  • manohar

    thank you so much this helped me

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Cool 😎

  • Suhail Azam

    Thanks a lot, You are the man.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Most welcome!

  • zhiao

    thanks soso much!!!

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad to help!

  • Phuc

    OMG you’re a life saver man! I had this problem when I used CCleaner to clean all the cache, then I had problem with the windows upgrade so I downgraded. I had to reinstall everything but ran into this problem instead. Your program worked like a charm.

  • Kapil Arya

    ^^ Glad it worked for you 😎

  • Rick

    I am getting the following issue, an you please help;

    The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

  • Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *