Resolving TIA Portal V13 SP1 Installation Errors on Windows

1. Problem Overview

Engineers deploying TIA Portal V13 SP1 (Totally Integrated Automation Portal, Service Pack 1, released 2015) on Windows-based engineering workstations frequently encounter installation failures that appear at the finalization step, after one to two hours of setup time. The installer reports generic error messages, leaves the engineering suite in a partially installed state, and subsequent attempts to launch PLCSIM V13 SP1 or WinCC Professional V13 SP1 fail with communication errors against the simulated S7-1500/S7-1200 controller.

The failure is rarely caused by a single defect inside the Siemens installer. In nearly every documented case, the root cause is one of four environmental conditions:

1. Antivirus quarantine of installer payloads during the unpack/setup stage, which silently strips DLLs, OCX controls, and signed drivers from the installation media.
2. Power interruption or forced shutdown during the long installation cycle (typical runtime: 60-150 minutes depending on selected components).
3. Incomplete prior uninstall leaving orphaned registry keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Siemens\Automation and remnant folders under %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Siemens\Automation.
4. Mixed component order — installing WinCC Professional V13 SP1 Update 1 before TIA Portal V13 SP1 Update 1, or installing PLCSIM and WinCC packages that do not share the same service pack level.

2. System Requirements and Supported Platforms

Before any clean install, verify the workstation meets the published Siemens Industry Online Support prerequisites for TIA Portal V13 SP1. The SP1 baseline raises the OS and runtime requirements above V13 base.

Confirm the Windows Installer service is running (msiserver) and that the Temp folder is not encrypted with EFS or redirected to a network share. TIA Portal cannot extract its bootstrapper payloads to a UNC path.

3. Root Cause Analysis Matrix

4. Pre-Installation Checklist

Complete every step below before launching Start.exe from the TIA Portal V13 SP1 media.

1. Disable all third-party antivirus real-time scanning (Windows Defender, Trend Micro, Kaspersky, Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, ESET). Siemens installers ship with code-signing certificates from VeriSign/Symantec, but heuristic engines frequently false-positive the bundled S7DOS driver and the PLCSIM network emulator.
2. Disable Windows Defender Real-Time Protection: Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Manage settings > Real-time protection = Off.
3. Set Windows power profile to High Performance and disable sleep/hibernation. Disable screen lock during install.
4. Confirm at least 30 GB free on the system drive and 5 GB free on the destination installation drive. The TIA installer performs an internal disk check and aborts if the temp scratch disk has less than 5 GB free.
5. Verify the Windows Installer service starts automatically and the account has full %TEMP% write access.
6. Apply all pending Windows updates, then reboot. A pending RebootRequired flag will silently roll back any MSI executed before the reboot.
7. Log in with a local Administrator account. Domain accounts without local admin rights cannot register the S7DOS helper service.
8. Close all running applications, especially Visual Studio, Excel, and any active RDP sessions. The installer checks for locked msi.dll handles.
9. Mount or extract the ISO locally. Do not install from a network share — MSI paths exceeding 256 characters and UNC reparse points are unsupported.

5. Complete Removal of Prior TIA V13 Installations

If a previous TIA Portal V13 / V13 SP1 install failed or was interrupted, a full manual cleanup is mandatory before reinstalling. The standard "Uninstall a program" entry leaves registry hives, the S7DOS driver, the PLCSIM virtual network adapter, and the licensing service behind.

5.1 Remove via Control Panel

1. Open appwiz.cpl (Programs and Features).
2. Uninstall in the following order, rebooting between each step if requested:
   1. SIMATIC TIA Portal V13 SP1 Update x
   2. SIMATIC TIA Portal V13 SP1
   3. SIMATIC STEP 7 V13 SP1
   4. SIMATIC WinCC Professional V13 SP1
   5. SIMATIC PLCSIM V13 SP1
   6. SIMATIC Automation License Manager
   7. Siemens PC USB / CP interfaces drivers

5.2 Remove Orphaned Folders

Delete the following directories if they remain after the Control Panel uninstall:

rd /s /q "C:\Program Files\Siemens\Automation"
rd /s /q "C:\Program Files (x86)\Siemens\Automation"
rd /s /q "C:\ProgramData\Siemens\Automation"
rd /s /q "C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Siemens"
rd /s /q "C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Siemens"

The TIA Portal project archive cache lives under %ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\Portal V13\ — deleting this also removes orphaned symbol libraries.

5.3 Remove Registry Keys

Open regedit.exe as Administrator and delete the following hives. Export each first as a safety backup.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Siemens\Automation
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Siemens\Automation
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Siemens\Automation
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Siemens\Automation

Specifically inspect the TIAP13 and Portal V13 subkeys — these are the primary blockers that cause the new installer to skip the component and report success without actually installing it.

5.4 Remove S7DOS Helper Service and PLCSIM Network Adapter

1. Open an elevated cmd.exe.
2. Stop and delete the S7DOS service: sc stop scS7dosHelper then sc delete scS7dosHelper.
3. Remove the PLCSIM virtual Ethernet adapter: Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections, right-click Siemens PLCSIM Virtual Ethernet Adapter > Uninstall. If greyed out, run set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 then devmgmt.msc > View > Show hidden devices > Network adapters, right-click the ghosted PLCSIM adapter > Uninstall.
4. Delete driver store packages: pnputil /enum-drivers and identify oem###.inf entries with provider "Siemens AG" for the PLCSIM and S7DOS drivers, then pnputil /delete-driver oem###.inf /uninstall /force.

5.5 Reset Windows Installer Database

A corrupted MSI database will silently block subsequent installs.

net stop msiserver
net stop msiserver /y
rd /s /q "%SystemRoot%\Installer\$PatchCache$"
net start msiserver
msiexec /regserver

Reboot before continuing.

6. Antivirus Exclusion Configuration

If corporate policy requires that antivirus remain enabled, configure the following path exclusions before launching the TIA Portal installer. These are the directories and processes that the AV engine most commonly flags.

7. Clean Installation Procedure

Follow the order exactly. Out-of-order component installation is the single most common cause of the "TIA installs but PLCSIM does not work" failure pattern.

1. Insert the TIA Portal V13 SP1 media or mount the ISO. Right-click Start.exe > Run as administrator.
2. In the installation language dialog, select English (selecting the same language for every component prevents localized resource DLL conflicts).
3. Accept the license agreement and choose the install directory. The default C:\Program Files (x86)\Siemens\Automation is recommended for 64-bit Windows.
4. In the components dialog, select the minimum required set for the project: STEP 7 V13 SP1, PLCSIM V13 SP1, WinCC Professional V13 SP1 (only if HMI/scada scope is required).
5. Confirm the prerequisite check passes (.NET, SQL, Windows Installer). If the check fails, see Section 10.
6. Click Install. The setup will run for 60-150 minutes. Do not interact with the workstation.
7. If setup halts at the finalization step with a generic error, capture the log: %TEMP%\Siemens\Setup Logs\SIEMENS_TIA_Portal_V13_SP1_SetupLog.log. Do not reboot before reading the log.
8. When the installer reports successful completion, reboot the workstation before launching TIA Portal.

After the base SP1 install completes, apply every available Update in ascending order (Update 1, Update 2, Update 3, …). Do not skip updates — the PLCSIM V13 SP1 Update 1 patch contains a critical RPC binding fix that allows TIA to discover the simulator over the local loopback.

8. Post-Installation Verification

1. Launch TIA Portal V13. The Start screen should show a "No project open" view. Check the version: Help > About should report Version V13.0 SP1 Update x.
2. Open Automation License Manager (ALM.exe in C:\Program Files (x86)\Siemens\Automation\ALM). Verify your license is recognized and the SINATIC key (USB dongle) is detected, or the Trial license has been activated.
3. Create a blank project. Add a SIMATIC S7-1500 device. Right-click the PLC > Start simulation. The S7-PLCSIM V13 SP1 window should open and the online connection should establish within 5 seconds.
4. Test the PG/PC interface: Start > Control Panel > Set PG/PC Interface. Select PLCSIM V13 SP1 (TCP/IP) as the access point for the S7ONLINE interface.

9. PLCSIM Communication Failures After Install

If TIA Portal opens but every download to PLCSIM fails with Connection to S7-PLCSIM failed or Online: No connection to target, the most likely causes are:

• S7DOS service not registered: Open services.msc and look for SIMATIC S7DOS Helper Service. If missing, the PLCSIM install was rolled back. Re-run the PLCSIM V13 SP1 Update 1 setup.
• PLCSIM virtual adapter disabled: Verify in Network Connections that Siemens PLCSIM is enabled and bound to TCP/IP. If the adapter is in a red X state, the driver failed to load — check Device Manager for code 31 or 39 on the PLCSIM node.
• Firewall blocking loopback: The S7-PLCSIM RPC channel uses TCP ports 102 and 49152-65535. Create inbound rules in Windows Firewall allowing PLCSIM.exe and S7DOS.exe on all profiles.
• Update level mismatch: TIA Portal V13 SP1 Update 1 will not communicate with PLCSIM V13 SP1 base. Check both versions match exactly under Programs and Features.
• Licensing issue: The PLCSIM license is bound to the Automation License Manager. If the ALM service is stopped, PLCSIM will accept the download but reject the connection after ~30 seconds with license fault 0x5.

10. Handling Specific Installer Errors

11. WinCC V13 SP1 Component-Specific Issues

WinCC Professional V13 SP1 is the most failure-prone component in the TIA suite, with a known issue where installation completes but the WinCC Runtime dialog refuses to start, citing missing SQL Server Express or .NET assemblies. To remediate:

1. Confirm the WinCC installer log shows "Setup completed successfully" — if it shows a rollback, repeat Section 5 fully and reinstall WinCC alone.
2. Verify SQL Server 2008 R2 Express (or SQL 2012 Express) is installed and the SQL Server (SQLEXPRESSWINCC) service is running. WinCC V13 SP1 creates a named instance during install — if the instance creation fails, the WinCC RT cannot start.
3. Ensure the HMI device type in the TIA project is supported by V13 SP1. Panels designed in V14 cannot be simulated in V13 SP1 — this produces a silent "Cannot open WinCC Runtime" error.
4. Do not run the WinCC RT under a Windows user whose profile is not yet fully loaded. The RT initialization depends on %LOCALAPPDATA% being writable.

12. Reinstalling After a Power Loss

If the installation was interrupted by a power loss, sleep, or forced shutdown, the Windows Installer database enters a half-committed state. Running the installer again will produce a "Setup is already in progress" or "Another installation is running" message. Recovery steps:

1. Boot Windows in Safe Mode with Networking.
2. Stop the msiserver service: net stop msiserver.
3. Delete C:\Config.Msi (this is the rollback script and is safe to delete after a forced shutdown).
4. Reboot into normal mode.
5. Run the TIA Portal V13 SP1 installer again. The installer will detect the partial state and offer Repair or Uninstall. Choose Uninstall, then proceed with the full removal procedure in Section 5.

13. Installing on Windows 10 (Out-of-Support Caveat)

TIA Portal V13 SP1 was released before Windows 10 and is not formally tested by Siemens on Win10. When installing on Windows 10 1809 or later, observe the following:

• Disable Windows Hyper-V Hypervisor only if PLCSIM V13 SP1 is required — Hyper-V's virtual switch conflicts with the PLCSIM virtual network adapter.
• Run the installer in Windows 7 compatibility mode only as a last resort; some MSIs validate the version and refuse to install.
• Microsoft Edge and Cortana do not affect the install, but the SearchUI service must be running for the TIA help viewer to render.
• If you are deploying on Windows 10 20H2 or later, the Windows Installer 5.0 quirks may surface as silent rollbacks. Apply KB2670838-equivalent fixes via DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 and the .NET 4.8 runtime.

14. Licensing Considerations

TIA Portal V13 SP1 uses the legacy Automation License Manager (ALM) rather than the newer Siemens License Server. The ALM service (ScSrv.exe) must be installed and started. The Trial license is granted automatically for 21 days; the floating license requires a network-attached license server with the 27009/UDP port accessible. If ALM is missing, PLCSIM will load and TIA Portal will open, but every project download will fail with error 0x80040217: License not found.

15. Diagnostic Log Locations

16. Final Verification Checklist

• [ ] TIA Portal V13 SP1 Update x opens without error.
• [ ] ALM service is started; license is recognized.
• [ ] S7-PLCSIM V13 SP1 starts from the toolbar.
• [ ] A S7-1500 device can be downloaded to PLCSIM.
• [ ] WinCC RT starts for a configured HMI tag (if WinCC was installed).
• [ ] Windows Update can be re-enabled without breaking the install.
• [ ] Antivirus exclusions are persisted and documented for the IT team.

FAQ