Windows 7 - Visual-Studio severely damages Vista

Asked By Jim Kay

07-Apr-08 08:49 AM

Way back in Nov of 2006, when Vista appeared for download on MSDN, I began
testing it. One of the early things I did was install Visual-Studio 2005
with its SP1. I discovered that multiple critical update processes were
failing to get access to c:\config.msi (a directory) and I was NOT being
prompted by UAC for administrative rights. There were scads of messages
about this on the Visual-Studio forum but silence from Microsoft. Every time
I update the access rights to that directory, something in Vista/V-S sets
those rights back to where they were.

Because I did not know the cause of the problem I totally rebuilt the
machine and installed my software more slowly. This time I discovered it was
specifically the install of Visual-Studio 2005 with its SP1 that caused the
problem.

I totally rebuilt the machine another time (each time takes about three
days) and then I installed Visual-Studio 2008 believing Microsoft MUST have
fixed the problem in the new Visual-Studio. Boy was I WRONG!!! Eventually, I
reconfigured c:\config.msi to inherit its rights from the root and I gave
myself full control there. This has made the problem a bit better but even
that gets reset in mysterious ways.

Now I am having trouble with McAfee Total Protection for Small Business
which decides it cannot update it's registry entries so it stops downloading
the latest virus signatures. (For now I may have found a workaroud: as soon
as I logon, I stop McAfee and restart it using run as administrator.)

But this mess is totally INSANE! I have several Vista systems running for
testing and this is the only machine where I have installed Visual-Studio.
It's the only machine having these problems which began IMMEDIATELY after I
installed V-S again (fool that I am).

Is there any hope that Microsoft is going to acknowledge this mess and
figure out how to fix it?

07-Apr-08 04:51 PM

If I remember correctly c:\config.msi is Office 2000 idiocy.

IIRC SYSTEM needs to have full control on that folder.

Alun Harford

07-Apr-08 07:47 PM

I don't know man. I have installed VS 2005 with SP1 and uninstalled it. I
went to VS 2008 and installed that. I don't know what you're talking about,
but i did do the installs with Run as Administrator.

08-Apr-08 07:24 AM

Hello,

Thank you for your post.

According to your description, my understanding is that after you installed
Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 on your Vista machine, some update
processes failed because the access to C:\cinfig.msi is denied. After you
uninstalled Visual Studio, the issue gone. You concern is to verify whether
it is the Visual Studio that cause this issue and find a solution to solve
this issue.

If there is any misunderstanding, please let me know.

According to the symptom, it seems that there are some compatibility issues
between Visual Studio and Vista. As we are not Visual Studio expert, I'd
like to suggest that you also submit a post in the following MSDN newsgroup
so that this issue can be resolved efficiently.

microsoft.public.msdn.general

The engineers and newsgroup members there are more experienced on Visual
Studio related issues, and should be able to provide you with suggestions
on this issue.

Meanwhile,I'd like to share with you some basic information.

Based on my research, this issue might be caused by not properly installing
Visual Studio 2005/2008.

I recommend you follow the below steps to uninstall Visual Studio 2008 and
reinstall it.

1.   Please follow the below article to uninstalling Visual Studio
2008
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2008/bb968856.aspx

2.   Install the latest Windows updates.

3.   Check if there is any anti-virus or antispyware running. Turn
them off before installation.

4.   Make sure that the installation media is healthy. If the
installation from DVD is not working well, you can try copying the contents
of the disc to the hard disk and try the installation from the hard disk.

5.   Temporarily disable/dismiss Windows Update during installation
(especially in Vista see:
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2007/11/13/6190778.aspx)

6.   Run the installation as administrator.

After the installation is finished, please check whether the issue still
exists.

If yes, I recommend you to contact to MSDN support engineers for further
investigation.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Neo Zhu,
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

08-Apr-08 06:18 PM

There are two things in your understanding that are a little off:

1. removing Visual Studio does not fix the problem. My Vista machines remain
permanently broken and must be totally rebuilt to fix them.
2. there are many messages in the MSDN forums of people complaining about
trouble with access to c:\config.msi directory but there are no (that I ever
found) responses from anyone at Microsoft that acknowlegeds the connection
to Visual Studio installation. I have proven to my own satisfaction that
installing Visual Studio is the cause of the problem. But it cannot, as far
as I know, ever be reversed other than format the drive and start over with
everything.

I have posted in MSDN but Microsoft just ignores the problem and doesn't
respond to ANYONE.

09-Apr-08 12:04 AM

What post?
When posting, please quote relevant information so that others know what you’re
talking about.

09-Apr-08 01:47 AM

Here is the post Bob,

Quote:
Way back in Nov of 2006, when Vista appeared for download on MSDN, I began
testing it. One of the early things I did was install Visual-Studio 2005
with its SP1. I discovered that multiple critical update processes were
failing to get access to c:\config.msi (a directory) and I was NOT being
prompted by UAC for administrative rights. There were scads of messages
about this on the Visual-Studio forum but silence from Microsoft. Every time
I update the access rights to that directory, something in Vista/V-S sets
those rights back to where they were.

Because I did not know the cause of the problem I totally rebuilt the
machine and installed my software more slowly. This time I discovered it was
specifically the install of Visual-Studio 2005 with its SP1 that caused the
problem.

I totally rebuilt the machine another time (each time takes about three
days) and then I installed Visual-Studio 2008 believing Microsoft MUST have
fixed the problem in the new Visual-Studio. Boy was I WRONG!!! Eventually, I
reconfigured c:\config.msi to inherit its rights from the root and I gave
myself full control there. This has made the problem a bit better but even
that gets reset in mysterious ways.

Now I am having trouble with McAfee Total Protection for Small Business
which decides it cannot update it's registry entries so it stops downloading
the latest virus signatures. (For now I may have found a workaroud: as soon
as I logon, I stop McAfee and restart it using run as administrator.)

But this mess is totally INSANE! I have several Vista systems running for
testing and this is the only machine where I have installed Visual-Studio.
It's the only machine having these problems which began IMMEDIATELY after I
installed V-S again (fool that I am).

Is there any hope that Microsoft is going to acknowledge this mess and
figure out how to fix it?
End Quote

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

SNIPPED

09-Apr-08 02:07 AM

Hi Jim,

Here's a few things I picked up on the Net that "may" help you.

This error occurs when the installer cannot write a file to the C:Config.msi
folder for some reason. A common cause is that a Windows Explorer window is
open that locks this folder.  Clicking retry will usually allow the setup to
continue. Close all open applications and restart the installation if the

Here are a few links that doesn't necessarily deal with Visual-Studio, but
may lead to a clue to help you.

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2080929.php

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=723876&SiteID=1

Take a close look at this one......
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-installation-setup/105461-c-config-msi-various-errors-many-installers.html

http://glovario.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/error-1310-error-writing-to-file-cconfigmsixxxxrbf/

You can search Google for the words    C:\cinfig.msi
They are several hits and maybe something can help you.

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

09-Apr-08 07:26 AM

Hello Jim,

Thank you for the reply.

I have done some further research and I find that Vista's UAC prompting
might cause this problem. Also running Visual Studio with normal user
permissions on Vista might cause some issues.

To narrow down this issue, I recommend you follow the steps below and have
another try.

1.	Enable the Administrator account and log in as Administrator.
2.	Disable Vista's UAC prompting.
To do this, please
1). Go to Start, Run, and enter "MSCONFIG"
2). Go to the Tools menu.
3). Halfway down the list, enable 'Disable UAC Disables User Account
Control (Requires Reboot)'
4). Reboot.

3.	Please uninstall Visual Studio and reinstall it again following the
steps I mentioned in my last mail.

After that, please check whether the issues still occur.

If yes, please tell me in detail that what operation causes the issue.
Please also check whether there are any error messages recorded in Event
logs and let me know. If possible, please capture a screenshot of the error
message and mail the screenshot to me.

To capture a screenshot:
===================
1. Please press the Print Screen key (PrtScn) on your keyboard.
2. Click "Start", click "Run", type "mspaint", and click "OK".
3. In Paint, click Paste under the Edit Menu, click Save under the File
menu, type a file name for the screenshot, choose JPEG as "Save as type",
click "Desktop" on the left pane, and click Save.
4. Please find the screenshot on the Desktop and send it as an attachment
to:  v-jpzhu@microsoft.com

More information
==============
The following information is for your reference:

Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista Issue List when running with normal
user permissions:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2005/aa972193.aspx

Contents of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Setup Issues Readme file
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;908452

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Neo Zhu,
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------
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ever
connection
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disk.

09-Apr-08 11:38 AM

McAfee is known to cause problems in Vista. Sometimes they don’t show up
immediately.
Replace McAfee with the free AVG http://free.grisoft.com/ or Avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html, and Windows Firewall and Windows
Defender. ***Disabling McAfee is not enough. You need to completely
uninstall it.***
McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/McAfee-Consumer-Product-Removal-Tool.shtml
-------
*Report back, please*

09-Apr-08 11:30 PM

McAfee did not cause this problem. It was very specifically the install of
Visual-Studio 2008 that did it.

At that particular time, I was using F-Secure, not McAfee.

10-Apr-08 08:30 AM

Some of the time I do get a prompt telling me that access to C:\Config.msi
was denied. "Retry" never helps. BUT, if I configure Windows Explorere to
show hidden and system files, I can access C:\Config.msi directly and then I
see that my account permissions have been automagically removed again so I
give myself 'full control', then 'retry' works.

So I know for certain that no other program or process is blocking that
directory. Unfortunately, my access permissions get removed again
automagically, sometimes during the very same install process and I have to
put the permissions back again.

The biggest problem is that many 'automatic update' services from Microsoft
and other vendors, do not ever give me the option to 'retry' but they just
fail. If I'm quick about it when one of them is running (Adobe is a big one)
I can put my permissions back on and the update works.

10-Apr-08 09:13 AM

Dear Jian-Ping Zhu,

I thank you for your honest response about this problem. It's the first one
I've gotten from Microsoft. Of course, UAC and Visual Studio aren't playing
well together. (Even though you only acknowledge this between the lines, I
appreciate it.)

My personal account is a member of the Administrators group.
When the permissions get reset on c:\config.msi, the administrators group
retains 'full control' as would be expected.
One would expect that disabling UAC would bypass the permissions problem on
that folder and it certainly does that. It was one of the first things I
tried.

Perhaps I should have been explicit about having disabled UAC in the past.
But I get tired of being pestered to turn it back on and, basically, I think
it's better for me to have UAC working.

But you seem to be acknowledging that Visual Studio and UAC don't play well
together. That's pretty sad now that Vista has been retail since late
November of 2006 and Microsoft is holding firmly to the position that
reduced user permissions is a reasonable and necessary approach to limiting
the risks of rogue software. In fact, I fully agree with Microsoft on this
point.

Microsoft is also holding the position that conflicts with UAC are totally
the responsibility of the application vendors who should either fix their
product so it doesn't require full administrator rights or should be certain
their product prompts the user when that is truly necessary.

OK, I agree. But, of course, Microsoft is ALSO the application vendor for
Visual Studio and that department hasn't gotten the message about being in
compliance with UAC.

I'm certainly old enough and experienced enough to understand that an
organization as large as Microsoft will inevetibly be inconsistent; even
seriously inconsistent. But now that Vista has been retail for one year and
five months, I think it fair of the user community to expect a clear
acknowledgment and warning from Microsoft about this problem; and really I
think it should have been fixed LONG AGO!

In any case, I removed Visual Studio 2008 long ago but the problem remains
as it has every time before. I am now in the process if reinstalling Visual
Studio 2008 using the method you provided. With UAC disabled, I am nearly
certain I won't have the permissions problem as that would be very strange
indeed.

So I suppose I get to choose between two alternatives:
1. totally rebuild my Vista system AGAIN and live without Visual Studio on
any Vista machine until Microsoft steps up the problem and fixes it.
2. run without UAC until Microsoft steps up to the problem and fixes it.

I do wonder how I'm going to know that the problem has actually been fixed
so I can turn UAC back on. (I'm not at all in the mood to do yet another
total rebuild. But if something else forces me to, I may go back to running
Visual Studio on an XP virtual machine which I have already experimented
with doing.)

Shie Shie (Thats the best I can do transliterating 'thank you' from
Mandarin)
Jim Kay

10-Apr-08 09:26 AM

I see. So you have tested this and uninstalled McAfee to see if it solves
the problem?

11-Apr-08 07:15 AM

Hello Jim,

Thank you for your reply.

I fully understand your feeling on this issue. Generally speaking, we will
always try our best to solve and reduce compatibility issues between
applications and systems. We try to will do full tests before releasing our
products. Some known issues will be included in the release note together
with a guide or instruction telling you how to prevent or resolve these
kinds of issues.

To this specific issue, I recommend you follow the installation guide
strictly when installing Visual Studio. If not, some unexpected issues
might occur. For example,it is recommended to "Run as Administrator" to
install Visual Studio SP1 in Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Release
Notes as Visual Studio installation requires elevated privileges. If you
run the installation without elevate privileges, you might get some
problems during the installation or the problem occurs after the
installation is finished or even after the program is uninstalled.

You could refer to the following Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Release
Notes when install Visual Studio:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928957/

During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made
to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability from previous
versions of Windows.

I also notice that the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows
Vista is available for download. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1
Update for Windows Vista addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by
Windows Vista enhancements. If you haven't installed this update, I
strongly recommend you install this update after the Visual Studio 2005 SP1
is installed and have another test.

You could download this update here:

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=90e2942d-3ad1-4873-
a2ee-4acc0aace5b6&displaylang=en

If possible, please test Visual Studio 2005 SP1 together with Update for
Windows Vista and Visual Studio 2008 on different Vista machines.

Moreover, the following information is for your reference:

Visual Studio on Windows Vista FAQ
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2005/aa948854

Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista Issue List - Running with normal user
permissions
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2005/aa972193

Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista Issue List - Running with elevated
administrator permissions
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2005/aa964140

Visual Studio .NET 2003 on Windows Vista Issue List
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2005/bb188244.aspx

I hope this helps. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Neo Zhu,
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------
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11-Apr-08 10:28 AM

FWIW, VS 2008 also completely broke my (pre-SP1) Vista HP installation,
likewise requiring a full rebuild.as a result of key/critical services that
no longer ran atuomatically and couldn't be started manually.

It was also the longest most disoncerting installation I have ever seen...
about an hour IIRC.

It is perversely reassuring to know that this was perhaps not a purely
random issue.

If you ever get VS08 installed with the rest of the system running correctly
please post back - I'd love to know how to do it... but in the meantime this
laptop is too valuable for me to be experimenting with (it's taking up too
much time just debugging regular BSOD's since SP1...)

It's nice to know that MS does at least peer at these groups... would be
nice if they could perhaps provide some effort to answering specific
questions that otherwise go unanswered (such as, "How do I log off iSCSI",
which I've answered for myself... at least when Vista *allows* me to log
off... but that's another story).

WRT McAfee - intercepting it at log on and then running as Admin - you could
try disabling the current run source and setting it to run via the Task
Scheduler where you can give it Admin rights *with no UAC prompts* at
run-time... I use this work-around on a number of things...

Good luck and HTH

--
Julian I-Do-Stuff

Some Vista stuff, but mostly just Stuff at http://berossus,blogspot.com

11-Apr-08 11:17 PM

Hi Jim,

Found something that "may" help you.
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/09/04/739820.aspx

Note the section:
Example of a setup failure that was fixed by SubInACL
A customer contacted me with a problem installing Visual Studio 2005


--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

12-Apr-08 10:51 AM

I will run this but I should point out that I've not had any installation
problems with Visual Studio. It's all the other stuff that gets into trouble
AFTER Visual Studio has been installed (and uninstall doesn't help; only a
fresh rebuild of Vista helps.)

Jim

12-Apr-08 10:53 AM

Thanks for posting. It helps me remember I'm not crazy.

For the time being, I am running this workstation with UAC turned off. This
makes everything happy. I logon as a member of the administrators group and
everything I do has those permissions automagically.

But this isn't making me very happy.

12-Apr-08 06:33 PM

Hi Jim,

I didn't have setup problems either, but it did fix a long time annoying
rouge Registry entries that no matter what I tried I could not modify nor
delete them. After running SubInACL I was able to fix this problem without a
hitch. I think it's at least worth a try.

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/

14-Apr-08 08:08 AM

I'm not sure I'm the best guarantee of anyone's sanity <NARF>

...but if we do get it fixed then maybe we could team up and Try To Take
Over The World <g>

--
Julian I-Do-Maniacal Laughter (Type-17)

Some Vista stuff, but mostly just Stuff at http://berossus,blogspot.com

22-Apr-08 06:44 AM

Hello,

I'm wondering if the suggestion has helped or if you have any further
questions.

Please feel free to respond to the newsgroups if I can assist further.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Neo Zhu,
Microsoft Online Support
Microsoft Global Technical Support Center

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------
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02-May-08 06:03 PM

I've encountered the ‘Error 1310. Error writing to file
C:\Config.Msi\XXXX.rbf’ error many times over the last 12 months or so.
*Very* frustrating. I got the error again today when attempting an Office
2007 Repair. (Recently, I've been getting odd messages when launching Word
and Excel and am wondering whether a repair will help.)

Visual Studio 2005 is installed on this PC.

Every time I've searched the 'net for someone else encountering the 1310
error, the results have been less than conclusive. I came across a blog post
today
(http://glovario.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/error-1310-error-writing-to-file-cconfigmsixxxxrbf/#comment-48)
that provides some possible fixes--none of which worked for me, however. Do
you happen to have the online backup utility Carbonite installed on your PC?
I do, but disabling it (which is one of the recommendations in the blog post)
did not resolve the problem for me.

LIke you, I am a member of the local Administrators group; however, Full
Control to the C:\Config.Msi folder keeps disappearing--and this seems to be
the cause of the 1310 errors.

If I keep pressing Retry, the error keeps re-appearing, but with a different
file name. As I press the Retry button dozens of times, the progress bar
moves along to 100% completion....and the repair process eventually says it
succeeds. I wonder what is not being accomplished by the files in the
C:\Config.MSI directory not being able to be written to? And why can't
Microsoft fix this problem?