Cannot uninstall through “Programs and Features” on windows 7 64-bit

[hsteinbeck]

I am encountering an issue where sometimes Windows 7 64-bit “Programs and Features” will not modify any installations. When you click on a product then click remove you get an error window stating:” Error opening installation log file. Verify that the location specified log file exists and is writable”

If you run msiexec directly or initiate maintenance mode from the setup.exe or msi file the uninstall will run normally.

If you restart the explorer process or reboot the system you can modify applications through “Program and Features” again.

This issue is highly intermittent, even a VMware image starting from the same snapshot run multiple times will sometimes get it but mostly won’t. (I know what you are thinning…it’s not just VMware, I have also had “real” systems in this state) The only bit of reproducibility I can get is when running the installation during Windows 7 software logo toolkit testing.

I thought this had to be something “bad” we were doing in our installation, but I have now made a simple one feature, one component install with which I can still reproduce the problem. (Twice after three attempts)

I have a case open with Microsoft, which is progressing reasonably well. So far it’s been determined that when explorer is in this state its trying to write the log to the system32 folder! (“Programs and Features” window is a thread from the explorer process)

However I am curious has anyone else experienced the same problem?

FYI - The installation packages have been built from a basic MSI project using Install Shield 2010

[IlkkaV]

I have this same issue with Basic MSI packages built on InstallShield 2011. Do you have any updates from Microsoft regarding this error?

EDIT: I've had this occur with 32-bit Windows 7 as well.

[hsteinbeck]

The Microsoft debug engineer has been working to find the root cause. So far it has been determined that a memory pool used by MSI was freed when it should not have been therefore MSI could not create the path for the temp location.

[hsteinbeck]

@IlkkaV – Does your install package have MsiLogging property set in the property table?

When I remove this property from my installation project I do not break Programs and Features any more.
What I know so far:

The explorer memory pool is getting into a “bad state”. How it gets into this state I do not know and cannot reproduce it.

Once explorer is in the bad memory state and I install my simple installation package with the MsiLogging property set I break Program and Features.

If you were to open Program and Features this bad memory state is removed. Even when Programs and Features is broken the bad memory state is fixed. However Programs and Features will remain broken until explorer is restarted.

[IlkkaV]

hsteinbeck wrote:
@IlkkaV – Does your install package have MsiLogging property set in the property table?

Yep, I'll try without it and see if everything works.

[hsteinbeck]

After a long hiatus this issue has returned again. Microsoft acknowledges this is an issue on their side but since we cannot supply a trace where the memory pool gets corrupted they are only going to document it.

So I ask again, has anyone else recently encountered this issue?

[joshstechnij]

I have encountered this behavior on my Windows 7 development machines when testing with MSI packages that have MSI logging enabled. I haven't seen the behavior in a while, but I usually just work around it by not uninstalling from Add/Remove Programs.

[hsteinbeck]

OK Microsoft has posted a KB on the issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2564571

[MattQVI]

I have the same problem. I installed from a DVD originally and when I try to Change in the Programs And Features or attempt to uninstall, I get the same message: "Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified log file location exists and is writable."