Products or updates may not be installed correctly when Microsoft .NET Framework 4 or updates for Microsoft .NET Framework 4 are installed after the other product or update installs and a restart is pending

Consider the following scenario:

• You install a product or update, and the product or update requests a restart of the computer.
• Before you restart the computer, you install the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 or an update for the .NET Framework 4 that was released before November 24, 2010.

In this case, the other product or update may not be installed correctly.

Note The issue that is described in this Knowledge Base article may occur on any of the systems that are listed in the “applies to” section. However, Microsoft internal testing has only reproduced this issue in Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003. 

Some products and updates use a registry key to store information about pending file rename operations (PFRO). This feature is used when files that have to be updated that are locked or that are being used, the installer writes the files to a temp location and renames them after a restart.

Because of an issue in a .NET Framework 4 custom action that runs during setup (install, uninstall, repair, and patching) the PFRO registry key written by another product or update may become corrupted in certain scenarios. If any product or update to a file requires a restart and writes the entry for the PFRO operation and when a restart is pending, you install the .NET Framework 4 or a .NET Framework 4 update, the PFRO registry key may become corrupted. When this occurs, other products or updates do not function as expected.

To avoid this problem, make sure that your computer has no pending restarts before you try to install the .NET Framework 4 or any updates for the .NET Framework 4. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Restart the computer.
2. Install the .NET Framework 4 or any updates for the .NET Framework 4.
3. Restart the computer.

An update is available from Microsoft. Install this update to prevent this issue when you install future updates for the .NET Framework 4.

Notes

• This update does not address product or update installations that might have already been affected. If you think that an installation of another product or update may have been affected by this issue, then you should repair the other product or update by using the Add-Remove Programs item in Control Panel. If that does not resolve the issue, you may have to completely remove and then reinstall the other product or update to resolve the issue.
• This update resolves the issue only when it occurs in the context of installing updates to the .NET Framework 4. This update does not resolve the issue when it occurs during the installation of the .NET Framework 4 product. If you encounter this issue during the installation of the .NET Framework 4, refer to the "Workaround" section for more information about how to resolve the issue. 

Download information

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

Download the package now. (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=207169)

For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

Prerequisites

To install this update, you must have Windows Installer 3.1 or a later version installed on the computer. To obtain the latest version of Windows Installer, visit the following Microsoft website:

Command-line switches for this update

For information about the various command-line switches that are supported by this update, see the following document:
For more information about Windows Installer, visit the Windows Installer MSDN website

Restart requirement

You do not have to restart the system after you install this update.

Update removal information

To remove this security update, use the Add or Remove Programs item in Control Panel.

Update replacement information

This update does not replace a previously released update.

File information

The global version of this update uses a Microsoft Windows Installer package to install the update. The dates and the times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in the following table. When you view the file information, the date is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.

Microsoft .NET Framework 4, 32-bit edition

Microsoft .NET Framework 4, 64-bit edition

Microsoft .NET Framework 4, IA-64-bit edition

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.