I have run into this a few times. I suspect the issue was being caused by the method in which the original installation of the JRE client was being uninstalled. In our environment, we control the installation of removal of most software via a 3rd party utility. This means that in some cases our techs (or sometimes the user) will try to remove a product via Programs and Features but will not have complete permissions to undertake the process, which may end up only partially uninstalling the product, leaving fragments of it in the file system.

The problem often starts with the following warning": "Java Setup. This software has already been installed on your computer. Would you like to reinstall it?”

Selecting Yes results in the following error: “Error 1723. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A DLL required for this install to complete could not be run…”

Sometimes this may be proceeded or followed by a Windows installer error: “This action is only valid for products that are currently installed.”

Looking at the details of the error in the Windows Application Event logs offers some details:

I can only assume regutils.dll is the module necessary for registering and unregistering the JRE client properly. Looking at that path, I can see that the Java programs folder is gone or the sub-folder for regutils.dll is empty. I am guessing that sometimes a technician comes along and decides to just delete the Java programs folder in desperation while trying to recover from a botched uninstall.

One way to work around this is to simply take this dll from a another workstation and copy it to or create the folder path in the error. For standalone computers, though, this may not be an option. I decided to take a quick look in the registry to see is I could identify the key that was still in place and preventing the complete removal or upgrade of the existing JRE using Process Monitor. I filtered the trace for the Java install-uninstall msiexec, registry only. After the trace was collected, I filtered further to include only “installer” in the path. After a few tries, I came to the culprit:

After deleting HKCR\Installer\Products\4EA42A62D9304AC4784BF238120602FF The Java JRE install proceeded normally.

I should mention that Microsoft offers another way to handle stubborn uninstalls: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/program_install_and_uninstall/, and upon reproducing the issue I can confirm it also works in properly cleaning up the residual registry key(s).