[Problem/Bug]: Evergreen Standalone installer fails when running during Operating System Deployment via SCCM

[jones948]

What happened?

I have the Evergreen Standalone installer packaged as an application in SCCM and included to be installed when I'm re-imaging a computer. The installer is failing with exit code 4294967295. This is happening with the latest installer downloaded from the WebView2 installer page.

I reverted my application to use an older installer (91.0.864.37) and it installs fine during imaging, which makes me think something has changed with the newer installer.

I'm installing it during imaging because other applications later in the imaging process require it (ArcGIS Pro, Camtasia, etc.) and will fail if it is not present.

This is the log of the install process that generates the error:

Parsed CmdLine: MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe /install /silent AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Parsed CmdLine: MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe /install /silent AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Prepared command line: "C:\WINDOWS\ccmcache\1\MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe" /install /silent AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Parsed CmdLine: "C:\WINDOWS\ccmcache\1\MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe" /install /silent AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Executing Command line: "C:\WINDOWS\ccmcache\1\MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe" /install /silent with system context AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Parsed CmdLine: "C:\WINDOWS\ccmcache\1\MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe" /install /silent AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Commandline length:68 evaluate:1 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Working directory C:\WINDOWS\ccmcache\1 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
CcmCreateProcess: Running from CcmExec or CcmExec not treated as managed installer; calling CreateProcess directly. AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Post install behavior is BasedOnExitCode AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Raising ETW event 20001 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Raised ETW event 20001 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Process creation time: 2025-01-06 18:34:20:498 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Current time: 2025-01-06 18:34:20:525 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Actual elapsed time (in seconds): 0 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Reconnecting to - Process Id: 3068, MaxRunTime: 7200000 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Waiting for process 3068 to finish. Timeout = 120 minutes. AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:20 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Process 3068 terminated with exitcode: 4294967295 AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:36 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Looking for exit code -1 in exit codes table... AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:36 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Unmatched exit code (4294967295) is considered an execution failure. AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:36 AM 5752 (0x1678)
Status is switching to Failure AppEnforce 1/6/2025 10:34:36 AM 5752 (0x1678)

Importance

Moderate. My app's user experience is affected, but still usable.

Runtime Channel

Stable release (WebView2 Runtime)

Runtime Version

No response

SDK Version

No response

Framework

Win32

Operating System

Windows 10

OS Version

10.0.19045

Repro steps

You would need an SCCM environment to reproduce this, as it seems to only happen during Operating System Deployment.

Package the WebView2 Runtime as a application with "/install /silent" switches.
Include the application as an Install Application step in the OSD task sequence.
Application install fails with the mentioned error.

When the error happens, I can bring up a diagnostic command prompt while the Task Sequence is in the error state, go to the cache where the WebView2 installer .exe is located, and run the same command manually, and it will work. So the error is specific to being called via SCCM's application install step.

MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe /install /silent

Repros in Edge Browser

No, issue does not reproduce in the corresponding Edge version

Regression

Regression in newer Runtime

Last working version (if regression)

Runtime 91.0.864.37 is the newest installer I had on hand to test with. It likely was working in a newer version than that.

[ambikakunnath]

Thanks for reporting the issue. Can you kindly share the installer logs - instructions here?

[jones948]

Logs attached. There was no %localappdata% log. These are from a failure that occurred 1/6/2025 at 2:14:33 PM.

Edge_Logs.zip

[jones948]

SCCM has an option for applications to run the .exe as a 32-bit process on 64-bit systems. I turned this on and the install appears to work partially (I see the files/folders in C:\Program Files x86\Microsoft\EdgeWebView), however, the installer (MicrosoftEdgeWebView2RuntimeInstallerX64.exe) is now hanging open. The installation step on my test has been running for over 30 minutes so far. I suspect it will hit the timeout and fail.

Hopefully this may help narrow down what the issue is.

Edit: It did fail, but the installer reported an error (code 2147747665). It did not hit the SCCM timeout, but the error was at exactly an hour, so I'm guessing that might be an installer timeout.

[vartaxe]

is deleting the key prior to install/update HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate\Clients{F3017226-FE2A-4295-8BDF-00C3A9A7E4C5} supported?

[ambikakunnath]

@jones948, couple of things:

1. For the logs shared earlier, can you confirm the SCCM was ran at/near 2:14:33pm failure?
2. Can you kindly share the repro steps and the matching logs?

[stewmang]

I have the exact same issue described in this bug.

[jones948]

@jones948, couple of things:

1. For the logs shared earlier, can you confirm the SCCM was ran at/near 2:14:33pm failure?

2. Can you kindly share the repro steps and the matching logs?

Yes, the logs I shared correspond to the failure in SCCM at 2:14:33 PM.

As mentioned in my original submission, you need an SCCM environment to reproduce this. The error only happens when you are installing the application as part of an Operating System Deployment task sequence. This is an automated process where the disk is erased, a clean OS installed, and applications installed before you boot into the full Windows environment. The "AppEnforce" log file included with my original post is SCCM's log file of the application install process during OSD.

I have an additional piece of information. I noted above that SCCM can run installers as 32-bit processes on 64-bit systems. When I tested it, I thought it wasn't working. However, I was affected by this bug in my test application:

#555 (comment)

...where the order of the command line switches matter: /silent /install works, but /install /silent does not (which absolutely should not matter and should be fixed as well).

I tried the 32-bit option again with the switches in the correct order and the webview2 application works correctly now. I'd still argue something changed in the installer that should be fixed, because no one is going to think about this 32-bit option as a workaround.