A VMware product fails to install or uninstall with the error 1603

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware Aria Suite
• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware Live Recovery
• VMware Cloud Director
• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

When installing or uninstalling a VMware product, an error 1603 may occur.

• Unable to install or uninstall the VMware product
• Installation or uninstallation of VMware product fails
• The following error appears:
  
  Error 1603: A fatal error occurred during installation.

Resolution

Consult the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Error 1603 when you try to install a Windows Installer package: A fatal error occurred during installation.