cannot install

I have the same issue and its 2025 many years later... did anyone manage to find a way to fix it?

I managed to find a way to fix it. It turns out the problem is that there are some lingering files. I think they were in appdata. I am not 100% sure. What i did was i downloaded a program that can remove all files related to a program (in this case poe). After I used that to remove all files the installer worked again. Windows uninstaller does not removes all files so you need a seperate program to handle the issue.

I have same problem and I have tried to cleanup lingering files, but installer still can't work.

Run the standalone client -> install complete -> empty in the assigned folder.
Run standalone client again -> there is only options for repair and uninstall.

In my case, this only happens to POE 1 installer, POE 2 installer works perfectly.

Doing what Vorre said worked. I got a program called Uninstalr, found path of exile and it got rid of everything. after doing that it finally let me install the launcher and I am now installing the game. I downloaded the steam version then uninstalled it. It still worked so maybe get the steam version if you don't see the game on Uninstalr. Hope this helps someone.