Error: Error 1402. Could not open key: UNKNOWN\ Components\ <GUID>\… when installing a CCS agent

Products

• Control Compliance Suite Standards Server
• Control Compliance Suite
• Control Compliance Suite Standards Module

Issue/Introduction

Control Compliance Suite (CCS)

When installing a CCS agent on a Windows server, you get the following error:

Error 1402. Could not open key: UNKNOWN\ Components\ <GUID>\…
Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.

Environment

CCS 12.6.x

CCS 12.7

Cause

Permissions are missing or not correct in the registry

Resolution

How to fix ‘Error 1402. Could not open key: UNKNOWN…’

This error is generally caused by insufficient or incorrect permissions on the named registry keys, or parent container of such registry keys. The error can be easily fixed; follow these steps:

1. Backup your computer or the registry. Microsoft’s built-in backup program allows for the “system state” to be selectively backed up. Alternatively, ZIP up the windows\system32\config directory while running in a backup operating system (this is where the registry hive files are located).
2. Log in as the ‘administrator’ (or an account with full administrator access) and disable the “UAC” (User Access Control). To disable the UAC, open the “User” control panel applet and select the Change User Account Control Settings. In Windows 10 the next dialog box will display a slider, simply set it to Never Notify.
3. From the START menu, execute Run… (press WIN+R) and then type “regedit“.
4. Navigate to the following registry root:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components 
   The ‘S-1-5-18’ key may be different on your computer.
5. Right click on the Components registry key, and then choose Permissions…
   
6. The Permissions for Components dialog box will be displayed.
   
7. Click the [Add…] button and add in the “Administrator”, “Administrators” and “SYSTEM” accounts. You might also want to add a local account having administrator privileges. 
   
8. On the first Permissions for Components dialog box, click on each account (in the top-list) and make sure each has the “Full Control = Allow” and “Read = Allow” permissions.
9. Click the [Advanced] button to display the Advanced Security Settings dialog box appears.
10. On the Permissions tab, turn on the Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object checkbox, and then press click the [Apply] button.
    
11. Repeat the above steps once more. There shouldn’t be any errors regarding not being able to update the permissions on the child keys.
12. Exit the dialog boxes by clicking the [OK] button, and the main registry editor will become the active window.
13. Re-run the installer or uninstaller by right-clicking on the respective icon and select “Run as administrator…” (if available) from the displayed context menu.
14. If the “Could not open key” message is displayed, on the exact same keys, it means the above operations were not implemented correctly. Simply repeat the above steps for main registry root node. 

Additional Information

Here are a couple of 3rd party articles for reference.

https://knowledge.civilgeo.com/knowledge-base/installation-error-1402/

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.100002346