[Windows] MSI installer Fails to Upgrade to OpenVPN 2.7.3 (Latest) with strange error (from OpenVPN 2.7.1)

[TheBestF22]

Hi.

I am trying to update to the latest OpenVPN Community and seeing the following error:

There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A script required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.

Currently installed:

• Latest Update Windows 10 22H2 [Version 10.0.19045.7184] (ESU from EU);
• OpenVPN 2.7.1.

Trying to Upgrade to:

• OpenVPN 2.7.3.

Additional info:

Can't understand the problem on the Error Log.
Hope You can help.

Here's the Log made by executing (in Administrator Command Prompt - Locally):

msiexec /qf /promptrestart /i "OpenVPN-2.7.3-I001-amd64.msi" /l*v!+ "%TEMP%\MSIinstall.log"

MSIinstall.log

I think the Problem starts somewhere around/right after Line 800 of this Log...
(I've "anonymized" some Personal info from USERNAME and some Folders BTW.)

→ if You guys want, I can retry it with the "extra debugging info" option too!.
(I just thought it would be "too much Noise" in the Log...)

--

Best Regards,
TheBest_F-22.

---

P.S.:

Since there isn't/wasn't an "issue Template", I did what I thought best for this problem.
Please feel free to ask me for any more info if You need. Glad to help.
(as a Last Resort, I can even try to fully uninstall the previous version before retrying - but I'd rather avoid that, if at all possible...)
😅

[flichtenheld]

The relevant part of the log seems to be

MSI (s) (6C:7C) [01:28:12:422]: Doing action: GetInstallDirForACL
Action 01:28:12: GetInstallDirForACL. 
Action start 01:28:12: GetInstallDirForACL.
MSI (s) (6C:28) [01:28:12:424]: Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (6C:28) [01:28:12:428]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 35172 (0x8964).
MSI (s) (6C:20) [01:28:12:443]: Running as a service.
MSI (s) (6C:20) [01:28:12:445]: Hello, I'm your 64bit Impersonated custom action server.
Error 1720. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A script required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.  Custom action GetInstallDirForACL script error -2147024703, :  Line 21, Column 5,  
MSI (s) (6C:90) [01:28:13:902]: Product: OpenVPN 2.7.3-I001 amd64 -- Error 1720. There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A script required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor.  Custom action GetInstallDirForACL script error -2147024703, :  Line 21, Column 5,  

Action ended 01:28:13: GetInstallDirForACL. Return value 3.
Action ended 01:28:13: INSTALL. Return value 3.

[flichtenheld]

A little bit of log reading and research brings the following recommendations:

Error 1720 — script error -2147024703 (0x800700C1 = ERROR_BAD_EXE_FORMAT) at Line 21, Column 5

Line 21 of windows-msi/script/ACL.js:21 is: var shell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");

• The system also had MsiSystemRebootPending set to 1, meaning a reboot was already
  pending - this could contribute to DLL loading issues.
• The error is not in the OpenVPN installer logic itself but in the system's ability to
  instantiate COM objects from JScript within the MSI custom action sandbox.

Recommendations:

Reboot the machine (given the pending reboot) and retry. If that doesn't help, re-register the scripting engine with regsvr32 jscript.dll from an elevated command prompt, or check if security software is interfering.

(Disclaimer: Since I'm not an expert on Windows, parts of this recommendation come from AI, namely Claude Opus 4.6)

Please let me know if any of that helps. If not, please provide a new log retrying after the reboot.