Windows 7 SDK installation failure

Microsoft now has a knowledge base article called Windows SDK Fails to Install with Return Code 5100 that describes this problem and its fix:

This issue occurs when you install the Windows 7 SDK on a computer that has a newer version of the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable installed. The Windows 7 SDK installs version 10.0.30319 of the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable.

The error message is located in the log file, which can be opened through the View Log button in the installer. Otherwise, it can be found here: %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp\ or %temp%. The log file is most likely called SDKSetup_7.xxxxx.log.

Solution: Uninstall any existing Visual C++ 2010 redistributable.

I just had this problem, and I looked at the solution at Ctrl+F5, Fix Problem Installing Windows SDK for Windows 7, but it didn't work.

I googled around and found the page Installing Visual C++ 2010 and Windows SDK for Windows 7: offline installer and installation troubleshooting and the advice there worked. Basically you could have one of several problems, and you have to look in the log file to see what's going on. In my log file I had:

6:17:07 PM Saturday, October 01, 2011: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Setup\SFX\vcredist_x64.exe installation failed with return code 5100

so as that above web page suggested, I uninstalled both copies of the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package that I had (both x86 and x64), and then when I ran the Windows 7 SDK installer again, it worked.

Although you might have a different problem than me. Try the solutions at the Ctrl+F5 and patheticcockroach.com websites that I linked.

I hoped this helped!

All of these (and other) solutions have failed completely for me so I figured out another.

You need the offline installation package (mine was x64), and you need to manually install only the samples. Opening the ISO-file with, for example, 7-Zip from location Setup\WinSDKSamples_amd64 and running WinSDKSamples_amd64.msi did this for me.

Then you just use the normal setup file to REPAIR the installation and choose whatever components you wish.

You should really check the log. It seems that quite a few components can cause the Windows SDK installer to fail to install with this useless error message. For instance it could be the Visual C++ Redistributable Package as mentioned there.

I have had this same problem with the x64 version installation. It relates (in my case at least) to the dexplore.exe installation. I uninstalled dexplore, reinstalled it, did a heap of registry changes, etc. as per various blogs and SDKs all to no avail. What finally fixed it for me was editing this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer\DisableBrowse

I changed the value to 0. Once the SDK had installed (quite happily this time) I set the value back to 1.

What alerted me to the possible error was the following in the SDK setup log:

12:19:42 PM Friday, 8 January 2010: SFX C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\Setup\SFX\dexplore.exe installation started with log file C:\TEMP\Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7_dd2d9383-116d-441f-85b3-7c16aeb3568e_SFX.log
12:19:47 PM Friday, 8 January 2010: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\Setup\SFX\dexplore.exe installation failed with return code 1625

And this in the dexplore installation logfile:

MSI (s) (E4:7C) [12:19:46:680]: Machine policy value 'DisableBrowse' is 1
MSI (s) (E4:7C) [12:19:46:680]: Adding new sources is not allowed.
MSI (s) (E4:7C) [12:19:46:680]: Warning: rejected attempt to add new source 'c:\eb66d60e4283bfc2986755fa\' (product: {6753B40C-0FBD-3BED-8A9D-0ACAC2DCD85D})
MSI (s) (E4:7C) [12:19:46:680]: MSI_LUA: Elevation prompt disabled for silent installs
MSI (s) (E4:7C) [12:19:46:680]: Note: 1: 1729 
MSI (s) (E4:7C) [12:19:46:680]: Product: Microsoft Document Explorer 2008 -- Configuration failed.

I hope this is of assistance in your situation.

One of the things to also keep in mind is that when you have Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed some C++ compilers and libraries may have been removed. There's been an update made available by Microsoft to make sure those are brought back to your system.

Install this update to restore the Visual C++ compilers and libraries that may have been removed when Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) was installed. The compilers and libraries are part of the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit for Windows 7 and the .NET Framework 4 (later referred to as the Windows SDK 7.1).

Also, when you read the VS2010 SP1 README you'll also notice that some notes have been made in regards to the Windows 7 SDK (See section 2.2.1) installation. It may be that one of these conditions may apply to you and therefore may need to uncheck the C++ compiler-checkbox as the SDK installer will attempt to install an older version of compilers ÓR you may need to uninstall VS2010 SP1 and re-run the SDK 7.1 installation, repair or modification.

Condition 1: If the Visual C++ Compilers checkbox is selected when the Windows SDK 7.1 is installed, repaired, or modified after Visual Studio 2010 SP1 has been installed, the error may be encountered and some selected components may not be installed.

Workaround: Clear the Visual C++ Compilers checkbox before you run the Windows SDK 7.1 installation, repair, or modification.

Condition 2: If the Visual C++ Compilers checkbox is selected when the Windows SDK 7.1 is installed, repaired, or modified after Visual Studio 2010 has been installed but Visual Studio 2010 SP1 has not been uninstalled, the error may be encountered.

Workaround: Uninstall Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and then rerun the Windows SDK 7.1 installation, repair, or modification.

However, even then I found that I still needed to uninstall any existing Visual C++ 2010 redistributables, as has been suggested by mgrandi.