UninstallWMISchemaExecute (0x8004401e) when updating VisualSVN on Windows XP

The problem

On the attempt to update VisualSVN on my Windows XP I struggled with the following exception quite a long time:

Custom action UninstallWMISchemaExecute failed: Diese Datei ist keine gültige MOF-Datei. (0x8004401e)
Screenshot of UninstallWMISchemaExecute-Exception (0x8004401e) when updating VisualSVN on Windows XP

UninstallWMISchemaExecute when updating VisualSVN

I was never faced with WMI before so I started from scratch and choosed to try’n’error. A great help was the artikel found in [1] and after a while I succeeded—but: I still have no clue why my solution worked, nor could I assure that it is side-effect-free. So use on your own risk!

The solution

  1. Disable the WMI service
    sc config winmgmt start= disabled 
    (make sure there is a blank between 'start' and 'disabled')
  2. Stop the WMI service
    net stop winmgmt
  3. Go to %windir%/System32/wbem and rename the repository-folder
    cd C:\WINDOWS\System32\wbem
    rename Repository Repository-old
  4. Find the *.mof-file in %windir%/System32/wbem which belongs to VisualSVN
    In my case the file was named “6E9A2709F6EB23A5E2F059ACD767AD78.mof”. Inside there were multiple occurences of the string “VisualSVN”—which I found by using Notepad++’s search-in-files-funktionality [2]. Note that the Windows search won’t lead to any useable results since Windows doesn’t do a text-search on *.mof-files by default.
  5. Remove the file found in step 4
  6. Search the registry on occurences of “VisualSVN” and remove every found item
    I guess especially the key “Autorecover MOFs” in

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WBEM\CIMOM

    was an entry which recreated the faulty *.mof all over again.

  7. Enabled the WMI service
    sc config winmgmt start= auto
  8. Start the VisualSVN-Installation

Reference

  1. [1] http://blog.technical-life.at/2011/09/nice-to-know-wmi-steuerung-reparieren
  2. [2] http://npp-community.tuxfamily.org/documentation/notepad-user-manual/searching/searching-files

Rolf Engelhard

 

Comments (7) Write a comment

  1. Unfortunately your solution didn’t work for me. I followed your steps and after I tried installing VisualSVN again I got the same error…

    Reply

    • Well, I’m sorry to hear that. If you find a solution please share…

      Reply

  2. Hello,
    Thank you much for the guidelines.
    But there’s typo in Step#7. It should be “sc” not “sr”
    Regards!

    Reply

  3. oh…oh…
    Stopping Win installer service required me to stop IP Helper server.
    So after step #7 I’ve restarted the IP Helper service manually.

    I’m not really flexible with command-line names of the services, so I’ve been using Window’s GUI to start them…

    Reply

  4. Necroposter here :)

    There is easier solution, actually. The error is caused by the fact the file “%VISUALSVN_SERVER%WMIVisualSVNServer.mof.uninstall” is missing. Do you have any assumptions why it got removed then?

    You can manually create the “%VISUALSVN_SERVER%WMIVisualSVNServer.mof.uninstall” file. Leave the file empty and the upgrade / uninstall of VisualSVN Server will succeed.

    Reply

    • Hi,

      I’ve got no clue why or even whether the VisualSVNServer.mof.uninstall was missing. But if I’ll have any trouble like that again, be sure your (pleasantly short) solution will be my first try :)

      Reply

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