Microsoft Security Essentials Installation Error Code: 0x80070780

One of our clients had viruses infect his XP computer, after removing the viruses from the computer, we then tried to install Microsoft Security Essentials. I would go through the setup wizard and when I went to install Microsoft Security Essentials I would get the following error:

Error Code: 0x80070780

An error has prevented the Security Essentials setup wizard from completing successfully. Please restart your computer and try again, Error Code: 0x80070780.” 

Here are the steps I used to correct this error and then I could install Microsoft Security Essentials.

Step One: Browse to “c:program files/Microsoft Security Client” on your hard drive. Microsoft Security Essentials is trying to install in the Microsoft Security Client folder but the malware has corrupted the folder.

Step Two: Rename the Microsoft Security Client folder to Microsoft Security Client 1.

Step Three: Run the Microsoft Security Essentials wizard, it will now create a new Microsoft Security Client folder and will install correctly.

Step Four: (Optional) If you want to get rid of the old Microsoft Security Client folder, you will need to slave the hard drive to another machine and browse to the Microsoft Security Client folder and remove it. You can use a hard drive dock like the one pictured below to slave the hard drive to another machine.

Thermaltake Docking Station

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Thank you for reading this post. If this helped you please leave a comment. This was posted by techspeeder.

Thanks for the tip NetMc.

5 thoughts on “Microsoft Security Essentials Installation Error Code: 0x80070780

  1. Sunny

    Hi Thank You.. your solution solved the problem..

    How may I delete the previous Microsoft Security Client 1 folder ?

    Dont have another machine to slave this hard disk ??

    Reply
    1. Merlin Halteman Post author

      I don’t have a solution for that .. . besides slaving the hard drive to another computer or, putting the drive in a dock and connecting it to another machine. I just left that folder on the computer and it worked fine.

      Reply
  2. Printwrite

    Thank you very much for taking the time to post those indications, it helped me greatly.
    Keep up the desire to share !

    Reply
  3. marlene

    I was able to download MSE by changing Microsoft Security Essentials to 1. However, when updating for virus, got this new message…this app could not check for virus updates…error code 0x80070424

    Reply
  4. Pingback: How To Fix 0x80070780 Microsoft Security Errors - Windows Vista, Windows 7 & 8

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