ERROR: "Flexeraaw7$aaa: Windows DLL failed to load" XCOM for Windows

Products

• XCOM Data Transport - Windows
• XCOM Data Transport

Issue/Introduction

During installation of XCOM.exe the following error popup may be displayed after XCOM.exe unpacked:

Flexeraaw7$aaa: Windows DLL failed to load
 at Flexeraaw7.af(Unknown Source)
 at Flexeraaw7.aa(Unknown Source)
 at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.init(Unknown Source)
 at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.executeApplication(Unknown Source)
 at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(Unknown Source)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
 at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(Unknown Source)
 at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(Unknown Source)

Environment

• XCOM™ Data Transport® for Windows 11.6 SP03, 12.0
  
  
• OpenJDK 1.8 345 and higher versions
  
  
• Windows Server 2022 and later.

Cause

There are compatibility issues between certain versions of InstallAnywhere (used for the XCOM installation), java.exe and Windows versions.
In particular this combination can cause problems but other/earlier versions of Windows may also encounter similar problems:
Windows Server 2022 21H2 and XCOM Windows 11.6 SP3 and OpenJDK 1.8 345

Resolution

XCOM for Windows 11.6 SP03 and patches no longer distribute Oracle Java with the installer and Java needs to be installed by the user.
The installer searches for the file java.exe using first the directories contained the PATH environment variable and then the Windows Registry.

1. Verify the default version of Java installed on the system (found first in the PATH) by issuing the following command:
       C:\>java.exe -version
       java version "1.8.0_291"
       Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_291-b09)
       Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.291-b09, mixed mode)
   NOTE: You may need to download and install a different version of Java should you not have one already installed.
   
   
2. If you have a different version of Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed in directory JRE_INSTALL_DIR,  then use the following command to perform the install (double quotes required if JRE_INSTALL_DIR contains spaces):
      C:\>XCOM.exe LAX_VM "JRE_INSTALL_DIR\bin\java.exe"
   This will force the InstallAnywhere to use that specific Java version rather than the default version.
   
   
3. Workaround if force does not work: Type SET JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-Dos.name=Windows 7" in the Administrator Command Prompt before starting the installer.
   
   
4. To uninstall, use command:
     C:\>C:\Program Files\CA\XCOM>Uninstaller_R116SP03\Uninstaller.exe LAX_VM "JRE_INSTALL_DIR\bin\java.exe

Additional Information

This issue is due to a bug with the InstallAnywhere software version used for the installer, run on a Windows 2019 server with the latest Oracle JDK 1.8.0_281 installed. 
IOJ-1913982
Java stack trace with Flexeraaw7$aaa: Windows DLL failed to load when running installer on Windows Server 2019 with JVM that outputs correct os.name of Windows Server 2019

April 2026 update:
Recent tests installing XCOM 12.0 on Windows Server 2022 & 2025 using latest Eclipse Temurin OpenJDK version for Windows "1.8.0_482" (only that Java 1.8 version was available) showed the same error and required the workaround from #3 i.e.
SET JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-Dos.name=Windows 7"
XCOM.exe LAX_VM "C:\Program Files\Eclipse Adoptium\jdk-8.0.482.8-hotspot\bin\java.exe"


Related article: XCOM Windows install "Could not find a valid Java virtual machine to load"