No way to install any Blend Version

Question

After uninstalling Expression Blend 2.5, I cannot install Blend (Version 1 , 2 (Dec.), 2.5 (March) ). The installation performes an rollback after step Installing Licenses. Msi log shows the following error:


1: InstallLicenses: Determining if the license store is in a valid state or contains obsolete licenses.
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to initialize SLDL. HRESULT: C004D301
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to verify license state. HRESULT: C004D301
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to initialize SLDL. HRESULT: C004D301
Action ended 08:22:33: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.


How can I resolve this?

Answer 1

Could you please share some information on what the install sequence was? Did you have a prior version of Blend installed on this machine? Any CTPs or Betas or Previews? XP or Vista? x32 or x64?

Thanks,
-Unni

Answer 2

I have this same issue:
-Vista x32
-Blend 1 (now removed)
- VS 2008 RTM

Answer 3

When you say Blend 1, did you have the trial RTM version installed, or any of the CTPs/Previews/Betas? Or did you have the licenses RTM build installed?

Thanks,
-Unni

Answer 4

Maybe beta I cannot remember

Answer 5

1. Installed Blend 2 Dec. Preview
2. Uninstalled Blend 2 Dec. Preview
3. Installed Blend 2.5 March Preview
4. Uninstalled Blend 2.5 March Preview
5. Try to reinstall Blend 2.5 March Preview -> Failed
6. Try to install Blend 2 Dec. Preview -> Failed
7. Try to install Blend 1 (Licensed) -> Failed
8. Try to install other expression Product-> Failed

Answer 6

Anything on this yet ?

Answer 7

I have exactly the same problem. I also uninstalled Blend 2.5 March preview and then failed to reinstall it again.

Answer 8

Hello ,

I am aslo having the same problem when i try to install Expression Encoder v1.0 in a virtual dedicated server running Windows 2003 x64 Enterprise.
Is there a workarourd for solving this issue ?

Thanks in advance ,
George

Answer 9

Hi,

I'm now having the same issue.  Has anyone gotten past this yet?

I was running Expression Blend 2.5 June Preview and I removed and reinstalled it (trying to clear up a XAML Intellisense issue).  Now the installer rolls back at the very end of the setup process.  I'm running Vista x64 SP1, VS2008 RTM and The July 11 release of the Silverlight Chainer.  The install log has the following (at least it's the first mention of an error).

MSI (s) (4C:0C) [13:50:42:838]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Expression\Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview\Microsoft.Expression.LicenseInstaller.dll, Entrypoint: InstallLicenses
MSI (s) (4C:DC) [13:50:42:838]: Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (4C:DC) [13:50:42:853]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 4040 (0xFC8).
MSI (s) (4C:90) [13:50:42:884]: Running as a service.
MSI (s) (4C:90) [13:50:42:884]: Hello, I'm your 32bit Elevated custom action server.
1: InstallLicenses: Determining if the license store is in a valid state or contains obsolete licenses.
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to initialize SLDL. HRESULT: C004D301
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to verify license state. HRESULT: C004D301
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to initialize SLDL. HRESULT: C004D301
Action ended 13:50:43: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

---

Erik Johnson

Answer 10

Common, guys, did anybody find an answer? Is reinstalling Windows the only cure?

Answer 11

Unfortunately, I gave up trying and repaved the box.  It stinks that we got no usable feedback on this issue.  It affected multiple people and the only solution is to scrape the machine.

---

Erik Johnson

Answer 12

Correct. Just watch the Microsoft tumbleweeds.
Microsoft doesn't want your kind using their software.

Answer 13

Only joking BTW, I've got the same issue going here:
http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/6632d796-8bff-426a-8aa1-6f46573303b5/

I'm going to try and frig it by installing the suite on another machine and WinINSTALL'ing it.

Answer 14

Hi,

Could you try installing the Blend 2 RTM trial from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5FF08106-B9F4-43CD-ABAD-4CC9D9C208D7&displaylang=en

Thanks,

---

Jeetendra Kukreja [MSFT]

Answer 15

I'm not being funny Jeetendra, but what do you think we've been doing all this time?

Did you bother to read the post at all? That's exactly what we've been trying to do.
Nothing works apart from Expression Web 2. All the other trial versions that don't ask for a product license crash.
I've never had anything but Expression Web 1 on. Expression Web 2 is working fine on the trial license at the moment.

Everything else (in expression studio, complete or individually) fails to install with the license error:

Failed to initialize SLDL. HRESULT: C004D301

By the way, I just tried to install it again anyway, because I heard it may have had something to do with KB9422880-V3 (Windows Installer 4.5 update) so I tried removing it and re-installing. But the installer still rolls back at the point SL_DL.DLL runs.

There seems to be quite a few people having the same problem:

http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&q=ERROR%3a+Failed+to+initialize+SLDL

Answer 16

You've gone bed haven't you? lol. Don't blame you.

Answer 17

I'm having this same issue when trying to install the version of Blend that came with my MSDN subscription. Did anyone find a resolution?

I get this error when installing any of the Expression products EXCEPT Expression Web, which installed with no problem.

I've uninstalled/reinstalled Office 2007, which didn't resolve anything. I installed .Net 3.5 SP1 when it was released - I'm going to uninstall that and see what happens. Starting from scratch is not an option - it would take a loong time to get my box back to its present state.

Answer 18

I've heard nothing dude. Done exactly the same, removed office, removed all the files from "C:\WINDOWS\Installers" that the log reports as "EXPECTED TO SEE PRODUCT" etc.

It has something to do with the SLDL dll file that is extracted from the installer.
It does not run on my machine and generates an exception.

According to Micro$ it's something to do with licensing, which is bull ____, because all my licenses are in order.
It's something to do with a bug (what's new when it comes to M$ software?).

Anyway, good luck to you m8. Hope you get it sorted.

Answer 19

There is definitely a problem with the license dll.

I uninstalled .Net 3.5 SP1, Silverlight Tools for VS 2008, and SP1 for VS.Net 2008, and that didn't resolve the issue. At one point the setup log indicated that the Microsoft Proof Tools for Office 2007 were the unexpected version, so I uninstalled that, which resolved that error, but I'm still getting the SLDL (licensing) error.

Here's where I am now (just in case any Microsoft folks decide to come out of hibernation)...

I copied the installation files from the CD to a temp folder, and ran the individual product msi's with verbose logging enabled. Interestingly, there's a separate msi for each Expression product in the Expression suite except for Expression Web, which appears to install as part of the Studio installation itself. This might explain why I can install Expression Web, but none of the other products (again, I'm using the Expression Suite CD that's available with my MSDN subscription).

Here's the command-line syntax for installing an msi with verbose logging...
msiexec /i Package.msi /l*v c:\Package.log

When I run Blend_en.msi, or Design_en.msi, etc, the installation starts to rollback when the InstallLicenses entrypoint to Microsoft.Expression.LicenseInstaller.dll is invoked. I want to point out that the installation fails for ALL Expression products EXCEPT for Expression Web. Here's the relevant section from the log...

Action 16:46:55: InstallLicenses. Installing licenses
MSI (s) (68:C0) [16:46:55:409]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=InstallLicenses,ActionType=3089,Source=c:\Program Files\Microsoft Expression\Encoder 2\Microsoft.Expression.LicenseInstaller.dll,Target=InstallLicenses,CustomActionData=c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Expression\Licenses\MdEncV2\)
MSI (s) (68:2C) [16:46:55:409]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: c:\Program Files\Microsoft Expression\Encoder 2\Microsoft.Expression.LicenseInstaller.dll, Entrypoint: InstallLicenses
MSI (s) (68:B0) [16:46:55:410]: Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (68:B0) [16:46:55:424]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 7252 (0x1C54).
MSI (s) (68:B8) [16:46:55:482]: Running as a service.
MSI (s) (68:B8) [16:46:55:485]: Hello, I'm your 32bit Elevated custom action server.
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to initialize SLDL. HRESULT: C004D301
1: InstallLicenses: ERROR: Failed to close SLDL. HRESULT: 80070057
Action ended 16:46:57: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

There's a reference, earlier in the log file, to a dll called SLDL_DLL.dll, which seems to get deployed to this location (by default):
c:\Program Files\Microsoft Expression\Encoder 2\SLDL_DLL.DLL.

My guess is that Microsoft.Expression.LicenseInstaller.dll invokes a method in that dll, which doesn't play nice.

Dear MSoft - hopefully this is enough information to keep this thread moving. Please. Purty please.

Answer 20

Some more troubleshooting info...

I tried installing the Studio product on Windows XP running in a virtual machine, and everything worked perfectly. Installed in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately that's not going to do much, since I need Blend to run in the same environment as my dev tools, etc.

After more research and tinkering, I'm convinced that somehow my licensing data store has somehow become corrupted. I ran the Genuine Advantage Tool to confirm that all of my software is licensed and legit (which it is) - it also didn't point out any obvious licensing issues elsewhere. If anyone from MSoft wants a copy of the Genuine Advantage output please let me know.
 
As far as I can tell from other forum responses, Microsoft expects you to shell out $99 for a support call when this sort of thing happens. That's ridiculous. There should be a simple way to fix a corrupted license data store, or whatever it takes to resolve this sort of thing.

Answer 21

There is a License Reset tool here bro.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/c/d/1cd508f9-7520-4659-a122-a26e8804e884/mskb928080.exe

You use it "resetsldl -all" command.

It didn't do me any good.

I have 2 licensing stores for some reason. The Expression Studio creates folders:

"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SL\DL\" with no files in it.

The reset tool creates a folder:

"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SLDL\" again with no files in it.

I've never even had any prior version of Blend / Expression software or studio on my machine before the official release (this one minus the latest service pack) and as far as I can determine (looking at the Company's Microsoft Intel LanDesk SMS Server software distribution logs) those 2 folders never even existed on my machine prior to me trying to install this software; and those logs go back quite a few years now.

If I "could" debug the exception and it would make any sense I would. I have full Visual Studio 2008 installed.

I've just given in trying this software. I'll stick with Adobe. Would have been nice to try it out to keep my skill set up, but without it being on my development machine, M$ have blown it. No way I'm re-installing my baby.

Expression Web 2 installs fine BTW (but who wants that? lol). It's all the latest gadgetry that won't.

Answer 22

Thanks much - I tried the license reset tool and it didn't do me any good either.

From reading a bit, it appears that Expression Web uses a different licensing model than the other products. Not that that knowledge really does me any good.

I agree - not too interested with Expression Web. I would like to use Expression Blend so I can stay current with Silverlight/WPF.