WinFX BETA2 installation problems: Visual Studio 2005 does not want to start

Few months ago I had a problem that my Visual Studio just did not want to start. I was frustrated, because I couldn’t notice any error and several re-installs also did not help. After few expensive ours (which I will for sure earn back by increased productivity with VS2005 J ) I solved the problem.

Few weeks ago I tried to install the WinFX Runtime Components BETA2. It did not work because I had already previous CTP version. So, I used recommended uninstall tool (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AAE7FC63-D405-4E13-909F-E85AA9E66146&displaylang=en).

This was my mistake. After successful uninstall my Visual Studio did not want to start anymore. Because I already had similar problem I decided to invest some less expensive hours (Holliday).

The installation procedure of runtime components causes two problems:

1)       Visual Studio does not start

2)       The runtime components installation fails with following very cool error:

[06/15/06,10:00:59] VS Scenario: [2] CPrevProductInstalledCheck failed : <font face=Verdana size=8pt>

Thank you for participating in the Beta program. You must uninstall all pre-release products in a specific order before you can continue with setup. For detailed information, see the <a color=#3F4F7F HOVER-COLOR=#C3120C href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54981">uninstall support page</a> and the <a color=#3F4F7F HOVER-COLOR=#C3120C href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=65603">readme</a>.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- Windows Workflow Foundation

[06/15/06,10:00:59] VS Scenario: [2] Failed to pass the Warnings/Blocks checks in CVSScenario::Start()

[06/15/06,10:16:33] Windows Communication Foundation Beta 2: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Windows Communication Foundation Beta 2. MSI returned error code 1603

[06/15/06,10:16:55] WapUI: [2] DepCheck indicates WinFX Runtime Components 3.0 - Beta 2 was not attempted to be installed.

[06/15/06,10:48:14] Windows Communication Foundation Beta 2: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Windows Communication Foundation Beta 2. MSI returned error code 1603

[06/15/06,10:48:34] WapUI: [2] DepCheck indicates WinFX Runtime Components 3.0 - Beta 2 was not attempted to be installed.

[06/15/06,13:23:51] Windows Communication Foundation Beta 2: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Windows Communication Foundation Beta 2. MSI returned error code 1603

[06/15/06,13:24:15] WapUI: [2] DepCheck indicates WinFX Runtime Components 3.0 - Beta 2 was not attempted to be installed.

First one is caused by uninstall procedure, because the uninstall does not re-install everything. The re-installation procedure removes the previous runtime components, but it forgets to remove Info card service and visual studio workflow extensions.

If the VS-WF extension is still installed, but runtime components are removed the VS does not start, because the extension probably crashes on startup (runtime is not there). Even if you invest some more “productive” time to re-install the VS, it will not help.

To solve this “sophisticated” problem, just re-install manually the VS-WF extension (Add/Remove programs).

The second problem you can solve if you remove the Info Card Service. I find always amazing when some component which I even currently do not need makes my live hard. The easiest way to do that is to use the SC.exe (the command line program for communicating with the

NT Service Controller and services).

Just execute following line in the command line console: sc delete "infocard service"

Now, you can start the installation of runtime components again. It should work J