C:\Config.msi various errors from many installers.

[Guest]

So I have seen many people post on this topic. Lots of people claiming they
have never had the problem but many more frustrated with the issue and lack
of meaningful information.

I have tested this and confirmed it on no less than 10 Vista x64 machines.
All installations were initiated with the 'Run as Administrator' option. I
have seen the error with Visual Studio 2005, Acrobat Reader, Office 2007.

The problem is a permissions issue. There is a process running in Vista
that is resetting permissions on the C:\Config.msi directory to READ ONLY and
resetting all the permissions every time an MSI is executed.

The Problem:

The problem is that the process that is resetting these permissions is
setting the directory to READ ONLY -> During the middle of an installation
which triggers the various errors.

Why are some people not having these issues?

The answer is simple. There is a hotfix/patch/optional update in windows
update that is causing this behavior change. Most people are installing many
if not all of their applications right after they install Vista. Especially
if they are a network admin or desktop support rep.. the behavior there is to
install the OS.. install the apps and then hotfix and service pack the
machine. Well in this scenario you skirted the issue as the problem does not
arise until you have installed the fatal combination of windows update
patches.

I would really like to see Microsoft address this issue. It is a real issue
and happens on very clean systems. I reproduced this issue with Office 2007.
Install vista. SP the machine to the hilt (everything in windows update).
then try installing Office 2007. PLEASE, someone at Microsoft address this
issue. I am also going to publish this in the bugs site to open a case.

Hope this helps..
David

 

[Sherlock]

I have spent the last couple of days trying to install Adobe Photoshop CS4 on
a dual core Vista 64 system. I was receiving the dreaded message about
c:\config.msi not accessible. Search of the web revealed this occurs
regularly durnig various installs and many have "cures" revolving around
elevating priviledges, etc. I tried all the various suggestions and kept
failing - at least 25 or 30 times.

My experience was that it hit randomly during the somewhat long install
process of CS4. While some installs just keep going anyway, CS4 does not.
The config.msi folder stores rollback info during the install process. If no
rollback is required, I would assume that the files stored there are
unnecessary. Those installs that merely post the error and continue seem to
be OK. CS4 won't do that.

I decided that whatever the bug was, it was a "race" condition of some sort,
so I decided to slow my system down by running other things during the
install. Ultimately I had two videos and the Process Monitor utility going,
and the install finished successfully.

This is why the bug appears randomly across the universe - it is dependent
on system speed and clearly exascerbated by multiprocessing configurations.

I hope this is helpful to those of you who find this post by searching the
web, as I did.