"Error opening installation log file" during uninstallation of RSA Authentication agent for windows

[#1]

Article Number

000039369

Applies To

RSA Product Set: SecurID
RSA Product/Service Type: Authentication Agent for windows
RSA Version/Condition: 7.x 
Platform: Windows

Issue

The following error is noticed while uninstalling RSA Authentication agent for windows.

Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified location exists and is writable.

Image description

Cause

This issue occurs if Windows Installer Logging is enabled, but the Windows Installer engine cannot properly write the uninstallation log file. This condition occurs if the Windows Installer's application heap becomes freed and loses the information about where to store the log file.

When this occurs, Windows Installer attempts to write to the location C:\Windows\System32 and addresses it as a file. Proper behavior would be to write to the following location and file name: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\MSIxxxxxx.log.

Resolution

To be able to successfully uninstall the agent, reboot the machine where RSA Authentication agent for windows has been installed. 

Workaround

To work around this issue, stop and restart the Explorer.exe process using Task Manager.

Notes

Microsoft:

Error when trying to uninstall an application: Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified location exists and is writable.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/application-management/error-opening-installation-log-file