Installation dissallowed in Windows Server 2012

[MatrixManAtYrService]

I can install this on Windows 7, but Server 2012 says "The system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation."

After having a fight with IT we tested out sever other installers, all of which worked, and came to the conclusion that there was something strange with this one.

[nkalvi]

@MatrixManAtYrService Could you please tell us the edition of the server and what did you choose as the installation location (also which version of Pandoc)?

[nkalvi]

@MatrixManAtYrService Also, could you try the solutions suggested here: http://serverfault.com/questions/580972/why-is-this-preventing-me-installing-an-msi-the-system-administrator-has-set-po

[MatrixManAtYrService]

The windows edition is "Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard"

I tried to use the installer named: "pandoc-1.15.0.6-windows.msi" as found on this page:
https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases/tag/1.15.0.6

When I experience the error, I haven't gotten far enough to select an install location. I agree to the license, click "Install", and am told that I'm not allowed to do that.

Just now, I tried it again. Same behavior. Then I selected "Advanced" and played around with those options. Turns out that the installation goes just fine if I select "Install for all users" but fails when I select "Install for just me." I'm glad you had me gather more information, looks like you lead me to a workaround.

I am happy to help with further investigation if it's something you'd like to pursue. But this workaround is good enough for me to carry on either way.

[nkalvi]

@MatrixManAtYrService I'm glad to hear that you can get by with the workaround. I'll try to find out why it fails using the default option (may take a few days).

[jgm]

@nkalvi did you ever figure this out?

[nkalvi]

@jgm I'm sorry, I did't get a chance so far; but I'll have time this week.

[nkalvi]

@MatrixManAtYrService
I'm ready to test this - I need the following to match your environment:

• Server roles (PowerShell output from Get-WindowsFeature | Where Installed would be helpful)
• Group Policy - permissions for your login (please rename any sensitive details). PowerShell command output similar to Get-GPPermission -Name TestGpo -TargetName "Domain Users" -TargetType Group would be helpful (more info here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh967470(v=wps.630).aspx)

[jgm]

It would be nice to resolve this.

[MatrixManAtYrService]

Very sorry to have taken so long to get back to you. It was sort of out-of-sight-out-of-mind until I stumbled across it.

I uninstalled pandoc and reinstalled it--just to make sure the issue was still present. It was.

Then I tried the solution you offered on September 10. It worked.

Here is the output of the first command:

    PS C:\Users\mrixman> Get-WindowsFeature | Where Installed

    Display Name                                            Name                       Install State
    ------------                                            ----                       -------------
    [X] File and Storage Services                           FileAndStorage-Services        Installed
        [X] File and iSCSI Services                         File-Services                  Installed
            [X] File Server                                 FS-FileServer                  Installed
        [X] Storage Services                                Storage-Services               Installed
    [X] Hyper-V                                             Hyper-V                        Installed
    [X] Web Server (IIS)                                    Web-Server                     Installed
        [X] Web Server                                      Web-WebServer                  Installed
            [X] Common HTTP Features                        Web-Common-Http                Installed
                [X] Default Document                        Web-Default-Doc                Installed
                [X] Directory Browsing                      Web-Dir-Browsing               Installed
                [X] HTTP Errors                             Web-Http-Errors                Installed
                [X] Static Content                          Web-Static-Content             Installed
            [X] Health and Diagnostics                      Web-Health                     Installed
                [X] HTTP Logging                            Web-Http-Logging               Installed
            [X] Performance                                 Web-Performance                Installed
                [X] Static Content Compression              Web-Stat-Compression           Installed
            [X] Security                                    Web-Security                   Installed
                [X] Request Filtering                       Web-Filtering                  Installed
        [X] Management Tools                                Web-Mgmt-Tools                 Installed
            [X] IIS Management Console                      Web-Mgmt-Console               Installed
    [X] .NET Framework 3.5 Features                         NET-Framework-Features         Installed
        [X] .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)  NET-Framework-Core             Installed
    [X] .NET Framework 4.5 Features                         NET-Framework-45-Fea...        Installed
        [X] .NET Framework 4.5                              NET-Framework-45-Core          Installed
        [X] ASP.NET 4.5                                     NET-Framework-45-ASPNET        Installed
        [X] WCF Services                                    NET-WCF-Services45             Installed
            [X] TCP Port Sharing                            NET-WCF-TCP-PortShar...        Installed
    [X] Ink and Handwriting Services                        InkAndHandwritingSer...        Installed
    [X] Media Foundation                                    Server-Media-Foundation        Installed
    [X] Remote Differential Compression                     RDC                            Installed
    [X] Remote Server Administration Tools                  RSAT                           Installed
        [X] Role Administration Tools                       RSAT-Role-Tools                Installed
            [X] Hyper-V Management Tools                    RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools             Installed
                [X] Hyper-V GUI Management Tools            Hyper-V-Tools                  Installed
                [X] Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell   Hyper-V-PowerShell             Installed
    [X] SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support                   FS-SMB1                        Installed
    [X] User Interfaces and Infrastructure                  User-Interfaces-Infra          Installed
        [X] Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure   Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra          Installed
        [X] Desktop Experience                              Desktop-Experience             Installed
        [X] Server Graphical Shell                          Server-Gui-Shell               Installed
    [X] Windows Identity Foundation 3.5                     Windows-Identity-Fou...        Installed
    [X] Windows PowerShell                                  PowerShellRoot                 Installed
        [X] Windows PowerShell 4.0                          PowerShell                     Installed
        [X] Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine                   PowerShell-V2                  Installed
        [X] Windows PowerShell ISE                          PowerShell-ISE                 Installed
    [X] Windows Search Service                              Search-Service                 Installed
    [X] WoW64 Support                                       WoW64-Support                  Installed

As far as the second command goes, I couldn't figure out what parameters to use it with. I spoke with a co-worker and we worked for a bit on it but weren't able to find a list of group policies currently applied (GPO's he said) so we couldn't query by group policy name.

I did run this command:
Get-GPOReport -server -All -ReportType HTML -Path .\GPO.html

Which gave me a large report that my co-worker said would probably include the information you need. He also mentioned that it contained all sorts of goodies that IT would prefer I didn't share. If you would like to run a similar report and pick the items you're interested in, I can get them to you.

Windows security is not exactly my cup of tea, so sorry if some of this doesn't make sense--I'm good with the concepts, but the lingo is new to me.

[nkalvi]

@MatrixManAtYrService Thanks for the info - GPOReport (of course remove any sensitive details) is necessary to replicate the environment correctly. Anyway, I'll start testing with defaults values and see what happens.

[nkalvi]

@MatrixManAtYrService @jgm

I can confirm that the default ("user") installation fails as described in the first message.
This is because on servers MSI installations are not allowed by default (policy).

@MatrixManAtYrService Could you please confirm this by running the installation manually from command prompt, with logging enabled:

msiexec /i <pandoc.msi> /l*v <log.txt>

and look for

Machine policy value 'DisableMsi' is 1 (this is usually 0 for Windows 10 etc.)

Here's more info: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368304(v=vs.85).aspx

DisableMSI	Description
1	The Windows Installer is disabled for unmanaged applications but is still enabled for managed applications. Non-elevated per-user installations are blocked. Per-user elevated and per-machine installs are allowed.

@jgm I'm wondering what is a good approach for server installations such as this:

1. Check the value and inform the user.
2. Also present only 'Advanced' installation.

[jgm]

+++ nkalvi [Dec 30 15 04:44 ]:

[5]@jgm I'm wondering what is a good approach for server installations
such as this:

1. Check the value and inform the user.
2. Also present only 'Advanced' installation.

Either sounds good, I don't have a strong opinion.

[nkalvi]

Thanks @jgm, I'll look at possible solutions.