KB2918614 breaks Windows Installer Service

Anonymous
2014-08-17T15:30:13+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-09-30T07:14:17+00:00

    Were you able to add the file association for .msi files?

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-09-30T07:15:38+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

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-09-30T17:01:14+00:00

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-10-01T03:30:02+00:00

    The file association for .msi files is correctly set to Windows Installer.

    That is what it has been all along.

    I am of the opinion that either one of the .dll files that Windows Installer depends on has been changed, or the Installer itself is damaged somehow..

    In checking the Event Viewer, I keep on seeing an Error with the Event ID of 1013 and it is attributed to: "Internal MSI error. Installer terminated prematurely."

    Normally, I would re-install the Windows Installer, but it is no longer available as a separately installable package. Up until Ver. 4.5, you could download the installer and re-install it. However, as of Version 5.0, there is no longer that option as I can find no download for it.

    Any further suggestions??

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-10-01T08:40:25+00:00

    Sorry, but I agree with DanzlZme here. Yours is not the same issue that we're discussing here. Nobody else has reported seeing Event ID 1013 - nor any message saying "Internal MSI error. Installer terminated prematurely." You should start a separate thread.

    Getting back on topic though....  it does seems as if progress has now massively stalled. Not long ago the problem had been successfully reproduced and we were all crossing our fingers that there might soon be a solution. Since then - ziltch.

    What's the official position now? Have the investigations been side-lined / moved to the back burner?

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