Why won't my Lync 2013 client install?

  • Article

Ok, we all have our new shiny installs of Lync 2013 client with the recent Office service updates.  The new client has been downloaded from the new portal and hurriedly installed on your machine.  But, oh no, it fails to install!  It installs on other machines ok and other colleagues are enjoying the wonders of Lync 2013 :(

This is what you see when you try to install the client from the installation media:

"Microsoft Lync Basic 2013 encountered an error during setup "

Oh dear... That's not good.

Ok lets look into the MSI install log, inside it we see:

2013/05/03 16:01:14:024::[16752] Successfully
installed package: LyncEntryWW path:C:\MSOCache\All
Users\{90150000-012D-0000-1000-0000000FF1CE}-C\LyncEntryWW.msi

2013/05/03 16:01:14:025::[16752] 05/03/2013 16:01:14
Committing MSI transaction.

2013/05/03 16:01:44:089::[16752] Error:
MsiEndTransaction failed. MsiEndTransaction ErrorCode: 1603(0x643).

2013/05/03 16:01:44:089::[16752] WER element
[P4] is set to value [1603]

2013/05/03 16:01:44:089::[16752] WER element
[P7] is set to value [1603]

2013/05/03 16:01:44:089::[16752] WER element
[P6] is set to value [%s %s]

2013/05/03 16:01:44:089::[16752] WER element [P6] is converted to [FC73469E]

2013/05/03 16:01:44:091::[14288] Showing
completion dialog.   

Hmmm a MsiEndTransaction failed... With an error 1603.

So looking further into this, it looks like the WMI repository is corrupted.  We can have a quick go in repairing and seeing if all is well with system files by trying to run this at the command prompt:

sfc /scannow

SFC is a system file checking tool which I think was included in Windows 2000 and now is in every version of windows.  You can read more about it here https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491008.aspx.

That might not sort out your problem, it might be that we need to do major surgery.  You can do this by running this script as a batch file:

@echo off
sc config winmgmt start= disabled
net stop winmgmt /y
%systemdrive%
cd %windir%\system32\wbem
if exist repository.old rmdir /s/q repository.old
rename repository repository.old
for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %%s
wmiprvse /regserver
winmgmt /regserver
net start winmgmt
net start SharedAccess
net start CcmExec

This should clear out the old repository and create a new one. 

Remember: This solution is presented as an solution to the issue being described and you run it on your own machines at your own risk!  

This should get things working.  I'm told that this also fixes an issue with Office 2013 not installing.  I've yet to test it, but please let me know if that is the case.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 04, 2013
    Thanks for the post. It completed the install but it then rolled back and gave the same error.

  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2013
    Didnt work for me. Lync 2013 Basic on a Windows 2012 Server. But thanks anyway..

  • Anonymous
    November 19, 2013
    The batch file bombed.. but I basically used the first few lines, reset the repository and restarted all three services. Worked like a charm. Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    June 10, 2014
    I tried everything and still couldn't install Office 2013. Running your batch file (modified slightly) fixed things and now I have Office 2013 installed. I took out the starting of the last two services (because they don't exist on this machine) and replaced the /regserver argument on the winmgmt command with /resetrepository.  THANKS!

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2014
    I've been trying to update our Lync 2010 to Lync 2013 at work (on a domain).  None of this worked for me, either, but what seems to have worked was installing Lync 2013 as a local admin.  Hope that helps!

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2016
    The comment has been removed