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I have MSI installer and I'm installing and uninstalling it using PowerShell script. When I uninstall it then I'm getting following error on Windows 2008/2016 server which is created on Azure.

Error Applying Transforms. Verify that the specified transform paths valid

I'm not getting this issue during uninstallation if I'm using non-Azure (Hyper-V etc.) environment. I tried couple of solution like to delete the Transforms registry, sfc /scannow, msiexec register/unregister. It works in that case. But I want to find the root cause of this. Why MSI installer shows this error on Azure VM only? Why this error occurs ?

Ajit Medhekar
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    For installed MSIs transforms are cached in `c:\windows\installer` folder. Check there. – montonero Jan 28 '19 at 06:51
  • I checked under c:\windows\installer, the cached .mst was missing there. So in this scenario I can not reinstall or uninstall the MSI product. Can we handle the scenario in MSI installer toignore the .mst ? – Ajit Medhekar Jan 31 '19 at 13:26
  • It depends. If .mst has any significant changes for an (un)installation then the (un)installation could be incomplete or just broken. BTW .msts are not in the `Installer` folder itself but in subfolders named after a product code of MSI installer package (it looks like `{90150000-006E-0409-0000-0000000FF1CE}`). Have you checked these subfolders? – montonero Jan 31 '19 at 14:07
  • I checked ProductCode folders as well. But it's not there. The main scenario here is it only causing an issue on Azure VM. And the another main scenario is we are performing remote installation. – Ajit Medhekar Feb 01 '19 at 07:41
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    I'd try to investigate why this mst is missing. It shouldn't under normal circumstances. As far as I know Azure VMs aren't really different from any other VMs. – montonero Feb 01 '19 at 08:30

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Haven't looked at transforms for a long time. Just some links to help yourself I am afraid. Have to make it an answer and not a comment due to the length (and formatting).

Logging: Enable full logging. Alternative explanations: 1, 2 (simple procedure). Search for anything related to transforms - obviously.

Transforms: MSI SDK: About Transforms and Symantec on transforms. It is possible that the issue is one of differing system policies so there is something that prevents transforms from being applied at runtime (maybe run secpol.msc).

Strange that it only happens on uninstall though. Where do you install from? A local folder or a network source folder? Perhaps the source folder is missing on uninstall?

Check out secure transforms vs unsecure transforms and the issues of Secure-At-Source Transforms and the Secure-Full-Path Transforms.

Stein Åsmul
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