KB2918614 breaks Windows Installer Service

Anonymous

I didnt know where best to post a bug report about KB2918614.

This is for Windows 8.1 Pro

It appears on August 13 I received KB2918614 and immediately after I began having trouble with certain MSI installations, especially those that required any version of Visual C++ Redistributable to be installed.

Now, of course I have most of those already installed, but the install process of many programs runs those redistributables before the actual install runs. It would always give me the error of "key not valid for use in specified state" and exit with a 1603 event.

I didnt know what caused the problem at the time and went through many troubleshooting steps including sfc/scannow, registry modifications (which have all been switched back to their original values), and attempts at re-installing the Windows Installer Service for Windows 8.1 (5.0) which apparently does not have its own redistributable install file.

Eventually I determined that I received a large number of updates on 8/13, so I removed them all. This immediately fixed my problem.

As I didnt know if that was a fluke and I didnt know which specific update caused the problem, on reboot they all re-installed.

The problem returned as soon as I started back into windows.

I went through each of the knowledgebase articles and located KB2918614 as being the only one that modifies the MSI Windows installer service files.

I have now removed and hidden this update.

I wanted to notify Microsoft of this issue but did not know the best method to do so, so I am posting it in the Microsoft community in the event another user has the same problem as I did in order to work around it.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

2014-10-04T22:10:27+00:00

The issue is it most likely isn't the OS causing it and it is a specific set up that is the root issue. Not to sound like I'm making excuses for MSFT but the teams that fix these issues are different from the teams that make the new OS. The biggest issue is this isn't a question, its a discussion. It would be best to start a new thread and ask a question to get a better response. Microsoft also has free tech support for update issues. Anyone with update issues can call or chat and they can remote or ask for logs to better evaluate the issue. This will also allow for them to add this data to thief metrics to see which issues are addressed in which order. My web site www.vindamedia.com has windows update help content under the windows help section on the top nav
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Anonymous

2014-10-04T21:01:12+00:00

I'm beginning to think Microsoft doesn't care at this point.

They are too busy on getting Win 10 up and running so they can make some more money!!!
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Anonymous

2014-10-04T17:29:31+00:00

This is surely something Microsoft should address as a matter of urgency.

You'd think so, wouldn't you - but the fix seems to be a long time coming :-(
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Anonymous

2014-10-04T16:58:56+00:00

I face the same problem on my Samsung Smart PC pro running Win 8.1, 64 bit. Strangely, uninstalling the mentioned security update did not fix the problem for me. Hope a better fix comes along soon! This is surely something Microsoft should address as a matter of urgency.
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Anonymous

2014-10-02T04:54:16+00:00

Try this http://www.vindamedia.com/windows/help/windows-update-general-failure

Might need to start your own thread since it sounds like yours is a different issue

Thanks to DanzlZme for the suggestion & some repairs were made.

Yet I am still unable to install .msi files or install Java.

(sigh)

Oh well a fix will come along some day :).
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