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
    2014-11-26T16:51:18+00:00

    I am also having an issue related to KB2918614, different from anything else in this thread.

    Windows Server 2003

    After installing KB2918614 (MS14-049), .NET Framework 2.0 update KB2978124 (MS14-072) fails to install with error 1601 (Windows Installer Unavailable).

    The .NET Framework patch log gives the following error:

    Failed to connect to server. Error: 0x80080005

    If I reboot after installing KB2918614, then the .NET Framework patch is able to install successfully.  So I have a workaround.

    I have never encountered a patch (other than Windows Service Packs) that required a reboot before additional patches could be applied in the same session.  At a minimum, this should be more clearly documented in the MS14-049 bulletin FAQ and/or KB2918614 page.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-11-12T08:47:18+00:00

    I'm not sure I understand what you mean by /fvomus method?

    Can I open a support case for you (email susan-at-msmvps.com (change the -at- to@) as without a case whatever you think is broken won't be fixed.

    For the sake of other users with similiar issues finding this post. The /fvomus method is detailed in the following page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa367575(v=vs.85).aspx

    The gist of it is that an update to an application can be installed by doing a reinstall of the product (using msiexec /fvomus Package.msi). This requires that the updated MSI package has the same ProductCode but a different ProductVersion.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-11-12T08:32:52+00:00

    Unexpected UAC prompt after you install update 2918614 in Windows:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3008627

    Can you see if that helps btw?

    Hi.

    Neither KB3008627 or the earlier KB3000988 resolved the issue. I am sending you an email at the address you provided with more details.

    Thank you for the help

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-11-12T08:27:49+00:00

    Unexpected UAC prompt after you install update 2918614 in Windows:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3008627

    Can you see if that helps btw?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-11-12T08:16:50+00:00

    I'm not sure I understand what you mean by /fvomus method?

    Can I open a support case for you (email susan-at-msmvps.com (change the -at- to@) as without a case whatever you think is broken won't be fixed.

    Was this answer helpful?

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