Resolving TIA Portal V13 Install Failure: SIA.ini Missing Error

Symptom: launching the STEP 7 / TIA Portal V13 setup on a Windows 7 workstation aborts with a "file not found" dialog referencing a compressed resource inside the setup's own temporary extraction directory. The same media installs without issue on a different machine, which rules out hardware and points to environmental interference on the failing host. This reference documents the exact symptom, the most probable root causes, a field-proven remediation order, and the verification steps required to confirm a clean install.

1. Problem Description

When setup.exe from the TIA Portal V13 installation package is launched on a Windows 7 system, the installer extracts its payload to a temporary working directory under the active user profile and then performs an integrity check before continuing. On affected machines, this integrity check fails immediately and the installer reports that a specific file cannot be located.

The exact path reported in the dialog is:

The RAR$EX##.### token is generated per run; the substring between EX and the second period is a random numeric identifier assigned by the self-extracting archive stub that fronts the TIA Portal V13 media. The actual file referenced is SIA.ini, a configuration manifest consumed by the Siemens proprietary installer (SIA = Siemens Installation Architecture) during the early stages of the bootstrap. Its absence halts the entire install before any feature tree is presented.

Behavior observed on the failing host:

• Setup fails at the very first screen; no welcome dialog, no EULA.
• Error persists regardless of the user account used (domain admin or local admin).
• Same setup.exe installs cleanly on a peer Windows 7 machine.
• The file SIA.ini is not present in any visible folder on the failing host.
• Both failing hosts run the same endpoint protection product (Symantec in the reported case).

2. Affected Environment

3. Root Cause Analysis

Four root causes are consistent with the observed behavior, listed in order of probability based on field reports against TIA Portal V13 on Windows 7.

3.1 Endpoint protection quarantine or on-access scan

Symantec Endpoint Protection (and most signature-based AV products from the 2014–2016 vintage) inspects the contents of %TEMP% aggressively. The SIA bootstrap writes the InstData tree to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp and then reads back the resources. If AV holds a write-open handle on SIA.ini during the scan window, the subsequent read returns ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND even though the file is logically present. This explains the failure on two laptops running the same AV product and success on hosts with a different AV vendor.

3.2 Corrupted or incomplete installation media

When the original distribution was a multi-file ZIP or split RAR set, an incomplete extract, a UTF-8 vs. UTF-16 filename mismatch, or a long-path truncation can leave the archive stub able to list the tree but unable to materialise SIA.ini. Copying a folder tree from a USB stick formatted as FAT32 with file-system-level attribute loss produces the same symptom.

3.3 Restricted or relocated %TEMP% via Group Policy

Domain Group Policy can redirect %TEMP% and %LOCALAPPDATA% to a network share or to a deep, junction-laden path. The SIA bootstrap expects short, ASCII-only paths. If the resolved temp path exceeds MAX_PATH, the stub silently fails to create RAR$EX##.### and the dialog reports the file as missing because the entire tree was never written.

3.4 Insufficient privilege for the staging directory

Running setup without elevated rights, or under a user whose profile is hosted on an encrypted file system (EFS) with a non-cached certificate, can prevent the bootstrap from writing SIA.ini. This is the only cause that "Run as Administrator" reliably eliminates; it does not resolve causes 3.1, 3.2, or 3.3.

4. Prerequisites

• Local administrator account credentials on the target workstation.
• The original TIA Portal V13 installation media (DVD, downloaded .iso, or vendor-supplied USB).
• Write access to a staging location with at least 12 GB free for the fully extracted payload.
• Ability to temporarily disable the endpoint protection client, or to whitelist the staging directory before extraction.
• Tools: 7-Zip or WinRAR for archive integrity verification; any ISO authoring tool (ImgBurn, the built-in Windows 7 "burn to disc image" workflow, or oscdimg) to rebuild the media.

5. Step-by-Step Resolution

Apply the steps in the listed order. Each step corresponds to one of the root causes in section 3; stop when setup completes.

Step 1 — Verify media integrity

1. Open the original media with 7-Zip; do not extract yet.
2. Test the archive: 7z t <media>.zip (or 7z t <media>.rar). All files must report OK.
3. If any file fails, redownload the media from the official Siemens distributor or contact the supplier; do not proceed with a corrupted source.

Step 2 — Run setup elevated from a local administrator account

1. Log off any domain account and log on with a local administrator. Domain Group Policy objects (folder redirection, AppLocker, software restriction policies) are not applied to a local account by default.
2. Right-click setup.exe and choose Run as administrator. Confirm the UAC prompt.
3. Capture the full path shown in any new error dialog. If the path is no longer under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp, Group Policy redirection was the cause; resolve the policy or move the staging directory off the network share.

Step 3 — Disable endpoint protection and rebuild the staging directory

1. Pause or disable Symantec (or the active AV product) real-time scanning. On managed endpoints, ask the AV administrator to add an exclusion for the staging directory and the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp tree.
2. Delete every RAR$EX* folder under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp to clear any half-extracted trees that the previous failed runs left behind.
3. Relaunch setup as administrator.

Step 4 — Rebuild the media as an ISO and install from the mounted image

This is the fix that resolved the reported case.

1. From a working workstation, use an ISO authoring tool to convert the entire TIA Portal V13 distribution folder into a single .iso file. With ImgBurn: Create image from files/folders, set the volume label to match the original media label, and use the original Joliet / UDF settings.
2. Copy the resulting .iso to the failing host by a method that does not touch the file attributes (avoid ZIP; copy directly or use robocopy /COPY:DAT).
3. Mount the ISO on Windows 7 using a virtual-drive utility (Windows 7 lacks native ISO mount; Daemon Tools Lite, Virtual CloneDrive, or WinCDEmu are field-standard).
4. Run setup.exe from the mounted drive elevated, with AV paused. The error should not recur.

Step 5 — Capture logs if the failure persists

1. After a failed run, browse to C:\ProgramData\Siemens\Automation\logfiles\setup (also reachable as %PROGRAMDATA%\Siemens\Automation\logfiles\setup).
2. Zip the entire folder and attach it to the support request.
3. Open SiemensAutomationInstallation.log with a text editor. Search for the strings SIA.ini, ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND, InstData\Resources, and the path that the failed dialog reported. The line preceding the failure lists the operation that triggered the read.

6. Verification

After a clean install, confirm the following before commissioning any project:

1. The TIA Portal shortcut launches without a reconfiguration prompt.
2. The Start menu shows the expected entry under Siemens Automation → TIA Portal V13.
3. Open the TIA Portal; Help → About displays the build number matching the distribution (e.g. V13.0 Update 8 or V13 SP2).
4. The installation log at %PROGRAMDATA%\Siemens\Automation\logfiles\setup shows Installation finished successfully or equivalent exit code 0.
5. The directory C:\Program Files\Siemens\Automation (32-bit) or C:\Program Files (x86)\Siemens\Automation (64-bit) contains the Portal V13 tree.
6. License keys (if any) are recognized: Project → Properties → Protection shows the licensed option packages.

7. Log File Diagnostics

8. Windows 10 Compatibility Note

TIA Portal V13 was released in 2014 and predates Windows 10. Siemens does not list Windows 10 in the V13 release notes. Engineering practice in the field is to upgrade to TIA Portal V15.1 or later for Windows 10 deployment; V15.1 added official Windows 10 (1809) support and V16 / V17 track current Windows 10 / 11 builds. If you must keep V13 projects, install V13 on a Windows 7 SP1 image (virtual or physical) and migrate the project forward in a single upgrade step on a supported platform.

9. TIA Portal V13 System Requirements (Reference)

Confirm that the installation procedure you are about to run matches the official Siemens workflow. The current documentation entry point for starting an installation is Starting installation — TIA Portal documentation; while this entry targets V20, the structural flow (insert medium, allow auto-start, run elevated) is identical to V13 and is the authoritative reference for which directories the SIA bootstrap expects to write.

10. Field-Proven Caveats and Edge Cases

• Domain vs. local account. Always retry with a local admin before treating the install as broken. Folder redirection and AppLocker policies that are invisible to the user frequently disable the staging directory.
• Custom %TEMP% via policy. Inspect gpresult /h gp.html for Folder Redirection. If AppData(Roaming) points to a UNC path, the SIA bootstrap will fail. Move the staging directory locally or set %TEMP%=%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp for the install session.
• EFS-encrypted user profile. A profile that is encrypted with EFS and whose certificate has not been cached (for example, a roaming profile on a freshly built machine) cannot write to %LOCALAPPDATA%. Use a fresh local profile.
• Long paths. If the username contains non-ASCII characters or is longer than 12 characters combined with a deep %TEMP% path, the bootstrap silently truncates and reports a missing file. Use a short, ASCII-only local admin user (for example, install) for the install session.
• USB stick attribute loss. USB media formatted as FAT32 drop the "archive" attribute. The SIA bootstrap does not require it, but a corrupted master file table on the stick can. Always re-image the distribution to ISO rather than re-using a USB stick.
• Symantec Tamper Protection. Even with real-time scanning disabled, Tamper Protection can hold a handle on InstData. Suspend Tamper Protection through the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager, not through the local client.
• Coexistence with V14+. V13 and V14+ cannot share a project; they can, however, coexist on the same host if the install order is oldest-first. V13 must therefore be the first Siemens install on the machine.

11. Troubleshooting Matrix

12. Frequently Asked Questions