Feb 25 2013

SQL Server 2012 Security Update KB2716442 hangs at MsiTimingAction

Category: SQL Server,Technology,Windows Update — Kamlesh @ 9:33 am

As a best practice, I keep my system up to date with latest security updates.  This time I am bit out-dated; since a month I didn’t run all the Windows Updates.  Recently, SQL Server 2012 released a security update which can be found in Windows Update:

Windows Update showing Security Update for SQL Server 2012 RTM (KB2716442)

The update size is 425.5MB! I get wild after seeing any update which is more than 50MB, because my Internet connection is sometimes unstable, which may cause more trouble if I perform Online Updates. As I keep rebuilding my PC, I always prefer to keep the Offline version of update for reusing it again.  This time again, I downloaded (link) this update from Microsoft Download Center.

I am using SQL Server 2012 64-bit on Windows 8 Pro, so I went and downloaded the 64-bit update file, which is SQLServer2012-KB2716442-x64.exe. When I ran this update manually, it went through series of steps via Wizard and it kept hanging at a place where I saw the message “Instance INSTANCE01: Updating ‘INSTANCE01′: MsiTimingAction“. (INSTANCE01 is the name of Instance I provided during installation earlier)

SQL Server hanging while performing update (KB2716442)

Very surprisingly, this time I didn’t have any option to close or stop this update process (see the red arrows above).  I waited for almost 3 hours, but the progress bar didn’t move. Finally, I rebooted my Windows 8 OS.

Today morning, I tried reruning the update and to my surprise it finished without any problem.

KB2716442 installed successfully

Does this mean that sometimes Rebooting the OS helps to fix/troubleshoot issues? :)

I know that my solution/findings may sound weird for you, but I just thought of sharing this with others.  Meanwhile, I also did some search and have the below additional information:

1) Linvi’s blog (link) on MSDN – This has some steps to solve this problem.  As per this blog post, Linvi suggests to make changes to registry.  I tried peeking into my registry hive HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\110\ConfigurationState, but I found that all my key’s already had the value of 1.

2) View and Read SQL Server Setup Log Files (link) on Technet -  This is good read for finding the problems. I navigated to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20130225_072103\ (last folder is the Date/Time stamp, which may vary) and analyzed the log files,  but I could not get any specific hints in any of the log file.  Its a good bookmark for future troubleshooting.

If anyone has got the real way to fix the problem, then I would like to hear from you.  Please leave your comments.

Oct 31 2012

Windows Phone 8 SDK ISO Offline Installer

Category: Mobiles,Windows Update,WP8 — Kamlesh @ 6:36 am

Here is the ISO direct download link of Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 8. This ISO file(wpsdkv80_enu1.iso) size is around 1.6GB and provides a stand-alone Visual Studio Express 2012 edition for Windows Phone or works as an add-in to Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium or Ultimate editions. It was released on 26-Oct-2012 (made available to public on 30-Oct-2012).

The Windows Phone SDK 8.0 is a full-featured development environment to use for building apps and games for Windows Phone 8.0 and Windows Phone 7.5.  With the SDK, you can use your existing programming skills and code to build managed or native code apps. In addition, the SDK includes multiple emulators and additional tools for profiling and testing your Windows Phone app under real-world conditions.

One good news for existing WP Developers is that the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 installs side-by-side with previous versions of the Windows Phone SDK. You don’t need to uninstall previous versions before beginning this installation.  But as usual, if you have any pre-release version of Windows SDK installed on your machine, then please uninstall it before installed this final release.

System Requirement:

  • 64-bit (x64) CPU
  • 4GB RAM
  • 4GB of Hard Disk space
  • Windows 8(64-bit) or Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)

To use Windows Phone 8 Emulator, your system should have following:

  • Windows 8 Pro edition or greater
  • Requires a processor that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)

If your computer meets the hardware and operating system requirements, but does meet the requirements for the Windows Phone 8 Emulator, the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 will install and run. However, the Windows Phone 8 Emulator will not function and you will not be able to deploy or test apps on the Windows Phone 8 Emulator.

For more details, here is the official link from Microsoft website.

Earlier SDK Version:  If you are using Windows 7 OS, here is the link for Offline ISO of Windows Phone 7.5 SDK.  If you are using Windows 8 OS, you will not require this, because with WP8 SDK you can develop applications for both WP7.5 and WP8 platforms.

Nov 03 2011

Windows Phone SDK 7.1 ISO Offline Installer

Category: Mobiles,Windows Update,WP7 — Kamlesh @ 11:55 pm

Here is the ISO direct download link of Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 7.1. This ISO file(WPSDKv71_en1.iso) size is around 730MB and is compatible with the final version of Visual Studio 2010 SP1. It was released on 25-Sep-2011.

You can develop apps and games that target Windows Phone OS 7.1 and Windows Phone OS 7.0 with this software. The Windows Phone SDK was previously named Windows Phone Developer Tools.

A word of caution:

  • If a pre-release version of the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 (Beta or RC) is installed on the machine, please uninstall it before installing this product.
  • Virtual machines are not supported.

For more details, here is the official link from Microsoft website.

Update:

There is an update to WP7 SDK, which is also referred as SDK 7.1.1. This update can be downloaded as Offline Install file (about 300MB) from this link.  Do check the official web page here – http://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk

A well-documented Installation Guide is available on this MSDN link.

Update (31-Oct-2012):  Microsoft has released the WP8 SDK which is also now available in ISO format for download.  You can find more details here.

Oct 27 2011

Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) ISO Offline Installer

Category: Microsoft,Visual Studio,Windows Update — Kamlesh @ 10:33 pm

Visual Studio 2010 LogoI am a fan of Offline Installers.  Reason: I keep building my PC/VM frequently and sometimes I don’t get a consistent Internet connectivity(Thanks to my ISP – BSNL).  Well, the Offline Installer also helps me save my Internet Bandwidth.

Today, I managed to complete the long time pending update – Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1.  The notification of this update was lying in my Windows Update since a long time.

Here is the ISO direct download link of Visual Studio 2010 SP1 (VS2010SP1dvd1.iso).  This ISO file size is around 1.48GB and is for all editions of Visual Studio 2010 (Express, Professional, Premium, Ultimate, Test Professional).

For more details, read the official link on Microsoft Download Center about this Service Pack.

Dec 25 2010

Windows 2008 Configuring updates Stage 3 of 3 loops and reboots

Category: Microsoft,Windows Update — Kamlesh @ 6:15 pm

Recently, while setting up Windows 2008 Standard Edition operation system on Virtual Box, I faced the problem of Windows Updates going into endless loop and rebooting the system.

Configuring updates: Stage 3 of 3 - 0% complete.

I tried the F8 (Advanced Boot Options) key and selected the Last Known Good Configuration option.  But this also ran into endless loops.

Advanced Boot Options - Last Known Good Configuration

As this was a new build, the only solution I got is to discard this Virtual Machine and build a new one from scratch.  The next time, the Windows Updates got installed properly without any issues.

I could recollect that the first time while downloading Windows Updates, I faced problem with my Network Connection, due to which I had to restart my VM manually.  I am assuming that this might have caused the problem of rebooting loops.

Did anyone managed to solve this problem, without building the system from scratch?