I spent days (not full time, eh ^^) figuring out how to do this one. So here are pointers for installing Visual C++ 2010 Express (just pointers because I didn’t keep it in the end – so basically I’ll just give you the offline installer), and the most detailed Windows SDK installation troubleshooting guide I can think of, after trying every posted solution and ending up finding out a new (yet simple) one.
NB: all this was done on Windows 7 x64 Enterprise.
Getting the offline installers
For Visual C++ 2010 Express, you can’t get an offline installer without downloading the full Visual Studio 2010 Express ISO. So, well just go there and pick All – Offline Install ISO image file. You can then just mount the ISO (using a tool such as Daemon Tools), or extract it (for instance 7-Zip can do it) into some directory, then browse to the VCExpress folder and run the setup there. To save disk space, you can just keep the C++ folder (VCExpress) and discard the rest (around 380 MiB if compressed using 7-Zip vs 693 MiB for the full ISO).
For the Windows SDK, the offline installer can be found there (Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (ISO)). Also, note that the “web” installer is (as of today) no more up-to-date than the offline one. Note that you have to choose between 3 ISOs: GRMSDK_EN_DVD.iso is for x86, GRMSDKX_EN_DVD.iso is for x64, and GRMSDKIAI_EN_DVD.iso is for Itanium. Then, same story as for Visual Studio: either mount the ISO or extract it somewhere.
Solving the most useless error message I’ve ever seen
NB: if you’re in a hurry, just skip until the “Summary of possible solutions for this Windows SDK installation problem” section.
When installing the Windows SDK, I got stuck by the following error message:
A problem occurred while installing selected Windows SDK components.
Installation of the “Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7” product has reported the following error: Please refer to Samples\Setup\HTML\ConfigDetails.htm document for further information.
Please attempt to resolve the problem and then start Windows SDK setup again. If you continue to have problems with this issue, please visit the SDK team support page at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=130245.
Click the View Log button to review the installation log.
To exit, click Finish.
As you can see, there is no real error message there, plus the file referred to by the message is nowhere to be found. At first I tried searching online for solutions, here is what I found (NB: none of those worked for me, but maybe they will for you, as the error message is likely a generic error which can be triggered by quite a few very different causes):
- On CTRL+F5, they suggest to run regedit then change the ownership of key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components(and its subkeys) from SYSTEM to the Administrators group (see the link if you need more details on how to do this). - On that same site, they say that if the previous method doesn’t work, you can also make sure that your TEMP and TMP environment variables all point to the same folder (so in my case, and probably yours too, it means deleting your user-specific TEMP and TMP variables). Once again, check out the above-mentioned link if you need more details on how to perform this.
Those fixes didn’t work for me, and I realized I could check the installation log. Which indicated what component was screwing everything up:
10:16:59 06 April 2011: F:\PROGRAMMING\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Setup\SFX\vcredist_x64.exe installation failed with return code 5100
10:17:15 06 April 2011: [SDKSetup:Error] Config_Products_Install: Installation of Product Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 (failed): Please refer to Samples\Setup\HTML\ConfigDetails.htm document for further information. Stack: at SDKSetup.Product.ConfigureRelatedSfx() at SDKSetup.Product.ConfigureNewProduct(ManualResetEvent CancelEvent)
So… vcredist_x64.exe is the culprit then. (Note that if your installation log doesn’t indicate the same error, then probably you can stop reading now as my fix will most likely not work in your case). As previously, I first tried to search online for solutions. The only thing I found was this, basically saying “make sure the Windows Modules Installer service is up and running”. Mine was already.
Finally, I thought why not try to install that vcredist_x64.exe myself, stand-alone. Vcredist_x64.exe is the name taken by basically every Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package (x64): any version of it. So I first tried the latest one, Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64), which offered me to either repair or remove. I picked repair. I tried installing the Windows SDK again, still no success. I thought maybe the vcredist aren’t cumulative, so tried to install the previous version, Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64)… and it failed, saying that I already had a more recent version (which was true since I had SP1). But that error message puzzled me, as it really didn’t look graceful: it felt more like a real failure rather than a “you already have a better version, no need to add this one so all done”. And so I decided to uninstall my Visual C++ 2010 SP1 (I just reran the installer previously mentioned and this time picked remove instead of repair). Note that to be able to uninstall VC++ 2010 SP1 I had to kill parts of my Catalyst drivers (the AMD Fuel service as well as CCC.exe (Catalyst Control Center:Host application) in the task manager).
With the Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package removed, I ran the Windows SDK installer again and it worked fine. It installed the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package, which I updated then with its SP1. All working good now, hurray! 🙂
Note that the Windows SDK installs both the x86 and x64 versions of Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable. I didn’t have the x86 version already installed, but if you do my best guess is that you’ll need to remove it too.
Summary of possible solutions for this Windows SDK installation problem
- Uninstall Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (as of today this is totally mandatory to be able to install the Windows SDK) (both x64 and x86 if applicable)
- Make sure the Windows Modules Installer service is up and running
- Change ownership of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Componentsto the Administrators group (not sure if it’s really needed) - Make sure that all your TEMP and TMP environment variables (global and user) all point to the same folder (once again, not sure if it’s really needed… but it’s always good to have all temporary folders at the same place: easier to clean ;))
Hello Sir,
I came across & read out your article, as I was searching out for a problem via Google.
The problem is, my notebook shutdowns AUTOMATICALLY & abruptly after getting a little heated up when I play games which demand high graphics. When I restart, i get a “Blue Screen Error” Message with some binary errors. Now, I have reported this to Microsoft (via Winows Update), and I have also checked out the manufacturer’s support website. There, they’re instructing to download this “Win SDK” to analyse & fix the problem. After reading your article, i have downloaded this “All – Offline Install ISO image file” (“VS2010Express1.iso”) 693MB file. After mounting this image, I’m getting an Autorun with 4 options (Visual C#,Basic,C++, & Web Developer 2010 Express).
Now, I don’t know what to do. Any kind of help or suggestion would be highly appreciated.
Thanking You,
Hi,
Those things are development tools. It’s really very strange that your manufacturer asked you to install them!! Only programmers need them, not users (users need just things like the .NET Frameworks or Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Packages).
Still, if you’re sure that you need the Windows SDK, you picked the wrong ISO: what you downloaded is Visual Studio. The Windows SDK is there, and probably to avoid picking the wrong one your best choice would be the online installer.
About your issue: the Win SDK isn’t some hardware/software diagnosis tool. If your computer is still under warranty, make sure that your manufacturer isn’t buying time by making you do useless tests… Basically if you have the latest updates of your Windows and the latest updates of your laptop drivers (and the BIOS, too) (and no viruses, either) and still get those BSoDs, RMA the laptop while you still can!
Good luck 🙂
Thanks for your help. My notebook is under warranty, I had bought it on August of 2010.
To your surprise, I need to tell you that the manufacturer is none other than Dell.
And my model is INSPIRON N5010. I have got 1 Year warranty, so I will contact the retailer. Thank you very much for your suggestion, I was really confused about this. This problem surfaced around February, when I was playing FIFA 11. Really, I dont understand what has Windows SDK got to do with this (Honestly, I’m not a techie, I don’t understand these much!). Still, I will download that Win SDK iso image (I can’t afford a web installer, as I have a slow download speed, and therefore require a download manager).
Its really miserable you know, I have got 1GB ATI Radeon HD Graphics Card, 4GB DDR3 RAM, armed with an Intel Core i5 processor, & still I can’t play any game!
Would love to hear from you, & If you plan to visit India sometime in future, do contact me!
THANKS A LOT!
Well, I’m not that surprised, because, well, Dell, you know… the only difference between them and most other laptops makers is that they’re more expensive.
What’s inside laptops of the same model may vary a bit, but from what I found it seems your graphics card is somewhere around the Mobility Radeon HD 5470 (to find out the exact model you can use HWMonitor). That’s usually the most limiting factor for video games, and indeed compared to the rest of your configuration it’s really the bottleneck: the desktop Radeon HD 5470 is definitely not a gaming card, and the Mobility Radeon HD 5470 is even weaker. For instance, I have the Mobility HD 5650 (from this laptop – which is definitely underrated IMO) and even that is rather limiting for recent games.
Still, if you want to try to upgrade your graphics drivers, here are all versions from August 2010 to March 2011 (I’ll add April 2011, which has just been released, later today or tomorrow).
Finally, thanks for the invitation, although I don’t think I’ll be able to travel abroad for a while at the moment 🙂
Exactly, I have this ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470. Does it mean that there’s no REAL solution to the problem? I have got all the updates of ALL of the drivers required. If I format the system, reinstall Windows with all the latest drivers, will it help anyhow ??
Just because your graphics card isn’t very powerful doesn’t mean it’s normal that it crashes. At worst it will make the game lag, but it shouldn’t crash! When you say you’ve got all drivers updates, you’re talking about the real latest version, right? (= the one from AMD/ATI, not the one from Dell, which is 10 months outdated on their support site)
If you do a whole system reinstall, with latest drivers and all (NB: looks like Dell updated the BIOS just yesterday), it may or may not fix the problem, but if it doesn’t at least you’ll know you can do nothing more to fix it apart from RMA. Or another option is that maybe it’s the game which is faulty: is FIFA the only game causing this crash? If yes, you may want to contact FIFA support about that.
Alright, I have the drivers ONLY from Dell’s support website, and I haven’t checked for the version of drivers individually from their respective manufacturers’ websites. And not only FIFA 11 causes shutdown, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4, Battlefield Bad Company 2, PES 2011, even GTA San Andreas (when played for a long time) does the same. I had thought of downloading NFS Shift 2 via Torrents, but it’s of no use as I would not be able to play. 🙁
And what is this “RMA” ??
RMA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_merchandise_authorization 🙂
Thanks a million for this post, the uninstalling VC++ redistributables did the trick for me…cryptic effin’ useless error messages these are, indeed.
Thanks a lot, you save my day. 🙂
Andrea
Hello I tried to uninstall v c + + 64x redistribute and it did not work, so then I uninstalled all versions of Visual C + + that I installed and after it worked : D
Thx for the post, it did prevent me from throwing my laptop in the street 🙂
I also had to uninstall the VC++ 2010 x86 redistruable (i have a x64 OS) and now it’s installing, hope it works 🙂
Yeah, never program on a laptop, it’s too light and tempting 😉
Thx, you made my day!!!
Hi David
I used only the first point of your Summary of possible solutions (on Win7/64) :
– > Uninstall Visual C++ 2010 SP1
and it works
thanks for your help
Gerd
Indeed if you read the full post, that’s also the only solution that worked for me too. The other issues must be much rarer (if not non-existent).
Thank you. Exactly the solution I needed, I already saw that the log pointed at the failed vcredist installation, but I was scratching my head on how that could happen until I stumbled on your post. Very much appreciated.
VC++ x86 was also a problem for me. Worked after I uninstalled.
THANK YOU SO MUCH TRIED SO MANY FIXES UNINSTALLING THE C++ REDIST WORKED!
Yeah, frustrating isn’t it? I wonder why the M$ guys don’t fix it…
Thank you so much! Like most other people, the fix that finally got it was the removal of the redistributable.
Thank you Thank you THANK YOU!
This error has been a thorn in my side for the past 3 days. I hate how Microsoft posts a solution for said ‘error code’ and the solution isn’t a solution at all!
The totally bonkers part of this problem is that even if you UNSELECT “Redistributable Packages”/”Microsoft Visual C++ 2010” option in the SDK installer (because you have already installed it), you still get the same error from their SDK setup program.
Thank you. solved my prob
Thanks a lot, this worked for me too, this should be on the support page 🙂
I rather think this should be fixed (this should be as simple as replacing an “exit;” with a “continue;”), although I wouldn’t mind being linked to from the support page ^^
nothing of this worked for me (same error code) – didn’t have installed any Visual crap before. the only solution for me:
downloaded the offline version (tanks for the link) – navigate to Setup\WinSDKDebuggingTools_amd64 on the iso file and install directly from there. worked like a charm <3
if you need 32bit use this foler: Setup\WinSDKDebuggingTools
thx u saved my life!
had to remove the Visual C++ 2010 redist pkg and all worked after that
thanks for the help!
Thank you so much! This saved me a million headaches!
Thanks a lot from Germany! This was the solution. What a shame, that Microsoft did not descripe it!
Thank you! Luckily for Microsoft there is users like you! 🙂
Thanks, this was spot on. Your fix worked for me. I did also have to reboot after uninstalling.
Thank you. Microsoft is dropping the ball badly on this one by not giving better documentation on how to fix this issue.
Thank you, this covered it for me, too. How silly…
By the way, where IS the install log kept? I don’t see anything useful in Event Viewer…
Hm, I don’t really remember… doesn’t the “View Log” button work?
Great hint. Deinstalling the redistributable solved my problem.
Thank you! With better competitors taking over Microsoft’s lead, the days of Microsoft requiring me to download a half gig of non-installable files and requiring web searches to decipher useless error codes just to upgrade FxCop from v1.36 to v10.0 are soon coming to an end.
Thx a lot for this hint! You really saved my day!
Thanks man, worked for me too 🙂
solved my probelm tooo
GR8 JOB man
Thanks! the solution has uninstall the VC++
Thank god I found your blog after only three days of trying to install the bloody SDK …
I wonder who at Microsoft is in charge of this mayhem… From the amount of comments (and from the VC Redistributable Package error message anyway) that clearly seems to be a deterministic problem, unlike similar failures such as http://notepad.patheticcockroach.com/3041/libreoffice-3-5-1-install-less/ and http://notepad.patheticcockroach.com/1683/fixing-grapvizs-installation-error-related-to-microsoft-vc80-crt/
I have found a solution, after unsuccesfully trying the “recommended” method from MS, without the need to uninstall VC++ runtime.
1. Download a Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 redistributable from http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Windows-SDK-for-Windows-and–NET-Framework-Download-118194.html (or google it).
2. Mount ISO file using Daemon Tools or other favourite DVD emulation software.
3. Browse to (mounted dvd)\Setup\WinSDKNetFxTools\
3. Using unpacker that can open MS cab files unpack WinSDK_FxCopSetup.exe_all_enu_1B2F0812_3E8B_426F_95DE_4655AE4DA6C6 from CAB. I used Total Commander.
4. Rename extracted file to WinSDK_FxCopSetup.exe
5. Install
6. Thank Microsoft for intuitive approach.
Ooh, nice. I think I’ll check if I can apply the same kind of “intuitive approach” 😉 to LibreOffice too.
I spent at least 24 hours trying to solve this problem and then you come along and solve it for me in 5 minutes. I actually did a happy dance.
perfect. i was trying to get this done for hours!
Thank you.
Removing the C++ 2010 distro (x86 and x64) and re-running the setup did it for me. Didn’t need to do any other changes. Thanks a lot. Cheers 🙂
Many thanks, you saved my day !!!