"Failed to set security descriptor on object"

[Guest]

I am attempting to install WindowsDefender.msi on my laptop with Windows XP
Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 2. I did have the Beta Windows
Defender installed before, that got removed as part of just running the
install of WindowsDefender.msi .

All goes normally until I see a yellow exclamation messageBox with this
message:

Failed to set security descriptor on object C:\Program Files\Windows
Defender\, system error: -2147023446

I have no choice but to push the only button on the messageBox, which then
backs out the Windows Defender install.

How do I correct this so that the installation will succeed?

Art

 

[Guest]

Hello Art,

Do you remember the WD version, engine and signatueres in your Beta program?

 

[Guest]

When I do a Properties on the old WindowsDefender.msi file, I get the
following for a signing time: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 5:01:45 PM

All the rest was blown away by the attempt to install the new
WindowsDefender.msi file, which has this signing time: Friday, November 03,
2006 6:29:46 PM

Both of these times are from the Digital Signature Details panels from the
..msi file properties dialogs.

Art

 

[Guest]

Whatever you do, (installing and updateting or unistalling) always as a
administratºr.
This is the key!


Can you gº to Windows Update, select Express (Get high-priority updates),
and apply all offered updªtes
http://update.microsoft.com

Once that is finished, can you verify the update installs? There are many
pre-requisite files which are needed from windows update and signature update
with windows defender will fail until you hªve these f!les.


Install Windows Installer 3.1 v2 (3.1.4000.2435) is availªble here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893803

Locate your file msi.dll (with search if you are
not sure where it's located) and confirm what the version is, either from
it's properties or just passing your cursor over it. If it's not the
latest which is 3.1.4000.2435, then:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893803/


Now let;s clean the left overs.
First remove all temporarily junk,
Try with CCleaner running in safe mºde.

Ccleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com
http://www.ccleaner.com/downloadbuilds.asp

Note, When you install Ccleaner, uncheck the Yahoo tool bar option.
Note, in Options, Advanced, uncheck - Only delete files in Windows folders
older than 48 hours.
Note: uncheck in Applications, the box for Utilities.

Do a scan with all the check marks on.
Open Ccleaner and press "Windows" "Applications" and Run Cleaner from the
menu choose 'Issues' and then press scan for issues, Repair any fºund.
Run twice Ccleaner, the same as above,until you get “0 bytes to be removedâ€.


http://safety.live.com/site/en-US/default.htm
Look for the broom Clean up, also Tune Up..

I'd recommend re-downloading Windows Defenser,and saving to a known
location--like the desktop.

After the download is complete, disable real-time protection by your
antivirus for long enough to do the installation. please disable or turn off
as much other software that always runs as you can--real time antivirus
scanning, any other antispyware software, (Stop all programs that are open in
the bottom taskbar) etc.

For the benefit of the community reading this post, please rate the pºst.

I hope this post is helpful.

Let us know how it works ºut.

Еиçеl
--

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Are you running as an administrator, or a limited user?

Is the drive you are installing to formatted as NTFS, or FAT?


--

 

[Guest]

I am running as an administrator. The drive I am installing to is formatted
as NTFS, with only 1 partition. This drive has 83% free space, with swap and
MFT looking normal. I have a different laptop owned by my employer that I
have performed this update on with no difficulties at all.

One difference: with my employer's laptop the default internet browser is
IE7, with the troubled laptop the default internet browser is Firefox
1.5.0.8. This SHOULD be insignificant, but who knows what environment MS
tested the install with?

I run Microsoft auto-update on both laptops. I had no need of IE7 on the
troubled laptop, so I did not download it, install it, nor enable auto-update
to install it. If IE7 is required in order to install the latest Windows
Defender, then that needs to be stated in the pre-requisites. I will install
IE7 and see if the Windows Defender install then succeeds. If it does then
there is some anecdotal evidence that IE7 is a required pre-requisite to this
latest version of Windows Defender.

Art

 

[Guest]

Okay, here is a run down on how your suggestions are going so far...

Yes, I was doing the install as an administrator. I think the install would
have halted with an error way earlier if I had not been an administrator.

Next: I run Microsoft Update on the automatic daily schedule. I did go to
the update site you mentioned and pushed the Express updates button. Not too
surprisingly, there were none to be had. In order to get here I had to
actually run IE7 for the first time since its auto-update install. My
default browser is Firefox 1.5.0.8.

Since I ran IE7 for the first time, I then tried to install Windows Defender
again and got exactly the same error messageBox.

Regarding your recommendations concerning updates for Windows Installer:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\msiexec.exe on my laptop is 3.1.4000.1823, but it is
also that exact version on my employer's laptop and it installed the new
Windows Defender with no problem at all.

The msi.dll on my laptop was already 3.1.4000.2435, the same as on my
employer's laptop.

So my conclusions on the msiexec.exe and msi.dll versions is that they
already were correct and probably not the cause of this problem. Corruption
of these files might be present, but I have not had *any* disc drive problems
with this laptop, so I consider that unlikely as well. Also, the most likely
usage of this laptop that could lead to malware infection is web browsing
(why I use Firefox). I will go through the exercise of replacing msiexec.exe
and msi.dll just to eliminate those faint possibilities.

That is pretty much where I am with this, and no successful Windows Defender
install yet.

Skipping to the bottom where you mention anti-virus software disabling: my
employer's laptop uses Symantec AntiVirus 10.0.0.359, which did NOT need to
be disabled for the installation of Windows Defender. My laptop uses
Computer Associates eTrust EZ Antivirus 7.1.8.0, which is close to the same
as used by Microsoft in their Mountain View, CA, offices when I was a
contractor there. Thus I do not suspect it, but I will retry the installation
with it disabled in any case.

Thanks for the suggestions,
Art

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

I doubt that the issue is IE7, but it might be some other update--if you do
an express scan at Windows Update--what else are you offered as critical
updates besides IE7?

There are plenty of Firefox users among the testers of various versions
here--I don't think that's it either.


--

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Art--I just read your reply to Engel, which I hadn't before the last
response. I then went back and re-read your initial message.

I suspect we're barking up the wrong tree here, but I don't have any great
ideas.

I'd be inclined to recommend deleting \program files\windows defender and
all under it, and then re-trying the install. It'd be interesting to see
whether you have any difficulty deleting that folder tree.

 

[Guest]

Bill,
I have a problem deleting the C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\ directory,
because after the install fails it backs out and the directory doesn't exist
anymore (but it does during the time the error messageBox is present).

I played around with it some more by creating an empty C:\Program
Files\Windows Defender\ directory and the directory the error message is
about changes to:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows
Defender\Definition Updates

I also notice that at the time the error messageBox is present that in
addition to the Windows Defender installation Application there is a "normal"
Windows Defender Application running and a Definition Updates Application
running. This is acting like there is some error in the sequencing of the
applications where the installer isn't catching the fact that it needs to
wait until one of the other 2 applications are done before trying to set
security descriptors, which in turn could be caused by something else.

This is beginning to look like it needs the attention of a developer... I'm
not sure how I set it off, but this is looking like a 'Genuine Microsoft Bug'
(TM) if the install encounters any slightly "out of the norm" execution
sequence.

Art

 

[Guest]

Any ithoughts on how to get a more in depth idea of how to approach this
problem? Do I finally have to spend a bunch of time on the phone to get any
further progress made to resolve this? This problem doesn't appear to be
solvable by any of the current "canned" "clean up and try again" approaches.
At this point I think I have tried all of the reasonable ones. Yes, I know I
could always wipe the disk and start over -- but the very fact that is
appearing to be the only way to get Windows Defender installed doesn't speak
well for the product's installation code.

Art