Monday, November 4, 2013

Windows AppFabric Installation Error 1603

Recently I re-installed and upgraded my local workstation to Windows 8.1 shortly after I installed Windows App Fabric and received error 1603. I heart this error code it says so little and means so much. After looking at the detailed error logs I see that the Hosting Services and Cache Services failed to install. The log file in fun log file fashion references another log file that contains the output of the MSI package that actually failed. Within that log file you may see something that looks like this:

Get-Content : The term 'Get-Content' is not recognized as the name of a 
Error: cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the 

Balderdash you say how could a CmdLet so core to powershell not be present during an installation running in administrative mode? The answer.. you for got to say Simon says or in other words Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned. In short set the remote execution policy of the powershell console you will be installing. Make sure to set it in both the 32bit and 64bit powershell console to be safe. It should also be noted that error 1603 can mean a variety of different things so make sure your logged conditions apply.