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“Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified location exists and is writable.” error when attempting to uninstall an application

Article ID: 2564571 - View products that this article applies to.

SUMMARY

When you attempt to uninstall any product in “Programs and Features”, a new “Windows Installer” window appears and gives the following error:

“Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified location exists and is writable.”

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MORE INFORMATION

This can occur if Windows Installer Logging is enabled, but the Windows Installer engine cannot properly write the uninstallation log file. This condition can occur if the Windows Installer's application heap becomes freed and thus loses the information on where to store the log file. When this occurs, Windows Installer attempts to write to the location 'C:\Windows\System32' and addresses it as a file. Proper behavior would be to write to the following location and file name: 'C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\MSIxxxxxx.log'.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the operating systems listed in the Applies To section of this article.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, stop and restart the Explorer.exe process using Task Manager.

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Note This is a "FAST PUBLISH" article created directly from within the Microsoft support organization. The information contained herein is provided as-is in response to emerging issues. As a result of the speed in making it available, the materials may include typographical errors and may be revised at any time without notice. See Terms of Use

(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151500)

for other considerations.

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