Introduction

Several Draycir products are supplied with so-called "chained installers", so that launching one installer will automatically launch a subsidiary installer. This simplifies the installation process. For example, the Credit Hound Express installer bundles together the installer for Credit Hound Express and the installer for Spindle Professional for Credit Hound Express, and the Spindle Professional installer contains the installers for Spindle Professional and also the Safenet client.

In Windows Server 2008 and later, these chained installers can cause the Windows Installer Coordinator to display 'Preparing for the first use', with the progress bar cycling indefinitely.

Applicable Products

• Spindle Professional
• Spindle Document Management
• Credit Hound Express
• Credit Hound

Applicable Server Versions

• Server 2008
• Server 2008 R2
• Server 2012
• Server 2012 R2
• Server 2016-2022

Technical Explanation

This problem is caused by an incompatibility with the Embedded MSI technology and the Windows Installer Coordinator. The Coordinator is responsible for keeping multiple MSI installations from running concurrently.

Solution

Microsoft have written a KBA regarding this issue - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2655192/installation-can-fail-with-window-installer-coordinator-error. 

Update 11/3/2021: This link has been removed from Microsoft's website but can still be accessed via this third-party site archive.org : Installation can fail with Window Installer Coordinator Error (archive.org) 

The solution for this issue is to disable the Remote Desktop Session Host Windows Installer for the duration of the installation. 

This can be done either using Group Policy / Local Policy or by editing the Registry.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, Windows Installer RDS Compatibility is turned on, and multiple per user application installation requests are queued and handled by the msiexec process in the order in which they are received.

Windows Registry

Alternatively, set or create the registry key as follows:

You may need to create the registry keys and the DWORD value highlighted above, or use the following in a .reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\TSAppSrv\TSMSI]
"Enable"=dword:00000000

as required.

Group Policy / Local Policy

Open the applicable policy editor (MMC + Group Policy ObjectEditor)

Navigate to  

Local Computer Policy>Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Remote Desktop Services>Remote Desktop Session Host>Application Compatibility – Turn off Windows Installer RDS Compatibility

Set this policy to enabled

Knowledge Base Article Details