VB 6.1.15-140463 Fatal error during installation on Win 10 build 20221

[RyanMcGill]

All of this is new to me, so please bear with me!

I've been affected by the KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED issue lovingly investigated in another thread (that I'd link to if I could), and saw the hopeful news that the latest test build may solve it.

I uninstalled VB 6.1.14-140239 (and ensured that the AppData/Local/.virtualbox folder was also fully removed), and tried to install 6.1.15-140463. However, each time I try this, I nearly immediately encounter "Installation failed! Error: fatal error during installation." It doesn't matter which installer features I enable/disable, whether I run the installer as an Administrator or not, whether I'm running in Safe Mode or not, or what directory I run the installer from.

Other threads indicate this is generally an MSI problem, but I don't know how to tackle it. I extracted the .msi file from the downloaded 6.1.15 installer and took a log.
These lines seem relevant, though I have more if it'd help:

Code: Select all

... snip ...
MSI (s) (90:E0) [01:33:55:213]: Doing action: RemoveExistingProducts
Action 1:33:55: RemoveExistingProducts. Removing applications
Action start 1:33:55: RemoveExistingProducts.
RemoveExistingProducts: Application: {1B1CFE9F-D421-4193-ACB8-FDE4D565C715}, Command line: UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE={61EE729E-8087-4800-8CD8-0D4FC3DEA18D} CLIENTPROCESSID=14864 CLIENTUILEVEL=0 REMOVE=ALL
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:217]: Resetting cached policy values
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:217]: Machine policy value 'Debug' is 0
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:217]: ******* RunEngine:
           ******* Product: {1B1CFE9F-D421-4193-ACB8-FDE4D565C715}
           ******* Action: 
           ******* CommandLine: **********
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:218]: Note: 1: 2203 2: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\inprogressinstallinfo.ipi 3: -2147287038 
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:219]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: Property 
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:219]: End dialog not enabled
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:219]: Original package ==> C:\WINDOWS\Installer\32d16.msi
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:219]: Package we're running from ==> C:\WINDOWS\Installer\32d16.msi
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:219]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: Property 
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:220]: APPCOMPAT: Uninstall Flags override found.
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:220]: APPCOMPAT: Uninstall VersionNT override found.
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:220]: APPCOMPAT: Uninstall ServicePackLevel override found.
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:220]: APPCOMPAT: looking for appcompat database entry with ProductCode '{1B1CFE9F-D421-4193-ACB8-FDE4D565C715}'.
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:220]: APPCOMPAT: no matching ProductCode found in database.
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: File 
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: MsiFileHash 
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: Component 
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Machine policy value 'DisablePatch' is 0
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Machine policy value 'AllowLockdownPatch' is 0
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Machine policy value 'DisableLUAPatching' is 0
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Machine policy value 'DisableFlyWeightPatching' is 0
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Note: 1: 2205 2:  3: Feature 
MSI (s) (90:48) [01:33:55:225]: Note: 1: 2725 
Fatal error during installation.
C:\WINDOWS\Installer\32d16.msi
CustomAction  returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
... snip ...

From what I can piece together, 32d16.msi is the old installer for 6.1.14, which Windows still believes is installed. Going into the Add and Remove Programs menu seems to validate this, as "Oracle VM Virtualbox 6.1.14" still appears there; however, choosing 'Modify' or 'Uninstall' only briefly flashes the Windows installer dialog before immediately exiting, and doesn't remove the program from the list.

So I'm stuck in a weird state. I'm unable to reinstall 6.1.14 using its installer because MSI still encounters the same fatal error. I can't install 6.1.15 because it's also trying to remove version 6.1.14 that it thinks is still there. Further, removing the 32d16.msi results in the 6.1.15 installer encountering a "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable." dialog that wants to know the location of VirtualBox-6.1.14-140239-Win.msi, aka the previous version, which doesn't really make sense.

I realize this is a Windows/MSI problem more than a VirtualBox one, but looking at this community, it seems more likely I'd get high quality help here.
Is this familiar to anyone? Do you know a way to deeply uninstall an old version of VirtualBox so Windows stops trying to uninstall something that's no longer there?

[RyanMcGill]

Well, I didn't figure out why Windows couldn't uninstall 6.1.14, but I did fix my problem.

I used Revo Uninstaller Free to track down the various registry information and other debris the failed uninstall left behind. After running that, I successfully installed the 6.1.15 build using its .exe installer!

Sorry for the lack of a satisfying root cause, but I hope this experience helps some future visitor.

[OraVBox]

To remove the old installation that was not removed during the uninstallation, simply start the installation again with the same version and select the Remove option in dialag. and it works

[RyanMcGill]

I did give that a try! However, the 6.1.14 installer insisted that it was creating a new installation rather than modifying or removing a previous one. I had no Remove option to choose.

[Berda17]

I had this problem, you need to install the same exact build version over the one you have, before attempting to uninstall it completely.

I other words, when you are uninstalling, if you get an error message saying that 6.1.12_123456_something.msi is missing, go to the VirtualBox download section and make sure you download \6.1.12\ and the build must be 123456 (or whatever number you need).

Does this help you?