Attempts to install Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) failed with an installer package 1722 error

Products

• Protection Engine for Cloud Services

Issue/Introduction

During install of SPE the installer was halting and throwing the following error (some of which was not completely visible).

Error 1722. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action UpdateAppName, location: ...\XMLModifier.exe -s "/configuration/Miscellaneous/Ap...

 

Environment

Release : 8.2.2

 

Cause

It seems that the parameters being passed as a custom installation could not be executed.

Resolution

• Tried removing java and reinstalling (has been the usual cause in the past where two versions were installed).  Sometimes a cause but in this case: No effect.
• Removed all registry settings, files and folders from the previous SPE install.  Sometimes a cause but in this case: No effect.
• Opened Windows Event Viewer under "Windows Logs > Application". It was there that we could see the full error that was being thrown:

Product: Symantec Protection Engine -- Error 1722.There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program run as part of the setup did not finish as expected. Contact your support personnel or package vendor. Action UpdateAppName, location: C:\Program Files\Symantec\Scan Engine\, command: C:\Program Files\Symantec\Scan Engine\\XMLModifier.exe -s "/configuration/Miscellaneous/AppName/@value" "Custom Application Name" configuration.xml

The above command calling XMLModifier.exe probably failed because, for some reason, there is an extra backslash prior to the calling of XMLModifier.  ..\\XMLModifier.exe -s .....

Decided to perform the install without doing the custom changes prior to kicking it off. Just went with a change to ports and other defaults.  The installation succeeded.

After the successful installation the command that was blowing up the install was run from a command prompt which was pointing to "C:\Program Files\Symantec\Scan Engine\"

XMLModifier.exe -s "/configuration/Miscellaneous/AppName/@value" "Custom Application Name" configuration.xml