Resolving TIA Portal V15.1 MSI Initialization ERROR_OPEN_FAILED

Problem Overview

When launching the TIA Portal V15.1 setup on a workstation that has previously been used with redirected Windows shell folders, network-mounted user profiles, or relocated Documents/Pictures libraries, the installer halts at the 47% mark of the resource initialization phase. After the language selection dialog, the following message is displayed and the only available response is Cancel:

MSI File initialization failed: ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE
MSI File initialization failed: ERROR_OPEN_FAILED

The Setup.log (or the sequence-specific log ADS_SIA_Sequence_TIAP_SIMATIC32.msi) typically contains a line similar to:

MSI (c) (90:90) [12:34:27:559]: SHELL32::SHGetFolderPath returned: \\<HOSTNAME>\<SHARE>\Pictures\Pictures

where <HOSTNAME>\<SHARE> refers to a network share that is no longer reachable, no longer mapped, or belongs to a decommissioned NAS such as a MyBook Live, MyCloud, or older Buffalo/WD device.

Root Cause Analysis

The TIA Portal V15.1 setup uses the standard Windows Installer (MSI) bootstrap. During the resource initialization stage the installer calls the Win32 API SHGetFolderPath to resolve user-specific shell folders such as CSIDL_MYPICTURES and CSIDL_PERSONAL. When the active user profile has been previously redirected to a UNC path (for example, by Group Policy, manual folder relocation, or a Windows Easy Transfer migration), the API returns the obsolete UNC path verbatim. Windows Installer then attempts to enumerate that path and fails with ERROR_OPEN_FAILED (0x80070002) or ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE (0x80004005).

The stale path is normally written to the registry at:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

Values that commonly trigger the failure include:

The MSI sequence embeds these resolved paths into the Directory table of TIAP_SIMATIC32.msi at authoring time, which is why the failure persists even when the registry has been corrected - the cached values inside the MSI itself are still stale. The same condition reproduces on Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (build 1607 and later), and Windows Server 2012 R2 / 2016 used as engineering workstations.

Affected Versions and Platforms

• Siemens TIA Portal V15.1 (released 12/2017, EOL announced - superseded by V15.1 Update 6 and later)
• STEP 7 Basic V15.1 through STEP 7 Professional V15.1
• WinCC Comfort/Advanced/Professional V15.1
• Startdrive V15.1 for SINAMICS G120/G120C/S120 commissioning
• S7-PLCSIM V15.1
• Operating systems observed to fail: Windows 7 SP1 x64, Windows 10 LTSC 1607/1809, Windows 10 build 1909

The same failure has been confirmed not to occur with the V16 and V17 setup framework, which re-resolves shell folder paths at install time rather than baking them into the bootstrap MSI.

Pre-Flight Checklist

1. Copy the entire TIA Portal V15.1 installation tree from the DVD to a local NTFS drive (for example C:\Install\TIA_V15_1). Never run Start.exe from a UNC path, a network share, or a USB drive attached via a network bridge.
2. Log in with an account that is a member of the local Administrators group. Right-click Start.exe and choose Run as administrator - this satisfies the UAC elevation requirement of the setup framework.
3. Temporarily disable third-party antivirus / endpoint protection (Symantec Endpoint Protection, McAfee, Trend Micro, Sophos, Kaspersky). Real-time file-system filters intercept the MSI write operations and corrupt the cached MSI payload.
4. Verify that the Windows Installer service is running: sc query msiserver must return STATE: 4 RUNNING. If not, start it with sc start msiserver or from services.msc.
5. Confirm that %TEMP% and %TMP% point to a local writable path. If either variable contains a UNC, installation will fail at the same point.

Solution A - Repair the User Shell Folder Registry Values

This is the cleanest fix and the recommended first step. The MSI is left untouched; the Windows shell simply returns a local path to the installer.

1. Open regedit.exe as Administrator and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders.
2. For every value whose data starts with \\ (a UNC), replace the data with the canonical local path:

My Pictures  = %USERPROFILE%\Pictures
Personal     = %USERPROFILE%\Documents
Desktop      = %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
Favorites    = %USERPROFILE%\Favorites
Music        = %USERPROFILE%\Music
Videos       = %USERPROFILE%\Videos

3. Repeat the review for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders (the non-expanded view). Windows Installer reads this key on older systems.
4. If the user is a roaming profile or the computer is joined to a domain, also inspect HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\<SID> and verify that ProfileImagePath is a local path.
5. Sign out and sign back in so that Explorer re-reads the keys. Verify with PowerShell:

[Environment]::GetFolderPath('MyPictures')
[Environment]::GetFolderPath('Personal')

Both commands must return paths beginning with C:\Users\ for a local user profile.

6. Re-run the TIA Portal V15.1 setup from the local installation directory.

Solution B - Edit the MSI Directory Table with InstEd

Use this method when the registry is clean but the embedded paths inside the MSI are still stale, or when registry edits are blocked by Group Policy.

1. Download InstEd (the free MSI editor). The tool runs without installation on Windows 7 and later.
2. Make a backup copy of TIAP_SIMATIC32.msi located in the root of the local installation directory.
3. Launch InstEd.exe and open the original TIAP_SIMATIC32.msi.
4. Navigate to the Tables view, then select the Directory table.
5. Search for the row whose Directory column contains the stale UNC (for example MyPicturesFolder pointing to \\Mywag320n\hdd_1_2\Pictures\Pictures).
6. Either change the DefaultDir column to the local path:

MyPicturesFolder = C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Pictures

7. Or, if no application data is required in that folder, delete the entire row from the Directory table and save the MSI.
8. Re-run Start.exe. The setup will now initialize the resource stage and proceed past 47%.

Solution C - Reset Library and Known Folders

Windows 10/11 and Windows 8.1 use the Known Folders API in addition to legacy CSIDL. Reset all known folders with the following procedure.

1. Open an elevated PowerShell and execute:

$known = @{
  '{0DDD015D-B06C-45D5-8C4C-F59713854639}' = 'Local Music'
  '{7D1D3A04-DEBB-4115-95CF-2F29DA2920DA}' = 'Local Music'
  '{A0C69A99-21C8-4671-8703-7934162FCF1D}' = 'Local Music'
  '{B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F}' = 'Screenshots'
  '{1B3EA5DC-B587-4786-B4EF-BD1DC332AEAE}' = 'Libraries'
  '{3D644C9B-1FB8-4F30-9B45-F670235F79C0}' = 'Downloads'
  '{A3918781-E5F2-4890-B3D9-A7E54332328C}' = 'Application Shortcuts'
  '{AB5FB87B-7CE2-4F83-915D-550846C9537B}' = 'Camera Roll'
  '{B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641}' = 'Desktop'
  '{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}' = 'All Tasks'
  '{F42EE2D3-909F-4907-8871-4C22FC0BF756}' = 'Account Pictures'
  '{F7F217ED-0B43-4F0F-9D2D-8B6F4B7A3A2B}' = 'My Pictures'
  '{A3918781-E5F2-4890-B3D9-A7E54332328C}' = 'Application Shortcuts'
}
foreach ($k in $known.Keys) {
  Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders" -Name $k -Value $known[$k] -Force
}

2. Log off and log on. Re-run the TIA Portal V15.1 setup from the local installation directory.

Solution D - Use msiexec with a Transforms File (MST)

For corporate deployments where every workstation fails identically, build a transform that overrides the Directory table. This is the only scalable enterprise approach.

1. Open TIAP_SIMATIC32.msi in Orca.exe (part of the Windows SDK).
2. From the menu select Transform > New Transform.
3. Open the Directory table and override the DefaultDir value of MyPicturesFolder to C:\Users\Public\Pictures.
4. From Transform > Generate Transform save the file as TIAP_SIMATIC32.mst in the same directory as the MSI.
5. Install with the transform applied:

msiexec /i TIAP_SIMATIC32.msi TRANSFORMS=TIAP_SIMATIC32.mst /qn /l*v C:\Logs\TIAP_install.log

The /l*v switch produces a verbose log equivalent to the ADS_SIA_Sequence log for further analysis.

Verification

1. When the setup completes successfully, the installer writes to the registry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Siemens\Automation\InstalledSoftware\TIAP15.1

2. Launch TIA Portal from the Start menu and confirm that the splash screen displays V15.1 and reaches the Open project dialog without prompting for additional installation steps.
3. Open the Help > About dialog and verify that the installed build is at least Update 1 (15.1.1.0). Apply the latest TIA Portal V15.1 update package available on the Siemens Industry Online Support portal.
4. From an elevated command prompt, verify the PLCSIM COM server is registered:

reg query "HKCR\S7ProSim.S7ProSim" /ve

A successful query returns the class identifier; an absent entry indicates a partial install.

5. Compile and download a small S7-1200 / S7-1500 test project to confirm that the full toolchain is operational. This is the final acceptance test recommended by the Siemens V15.1 installation manual.

Related Failure Modes

Preventive Recommendations

• Standardize engineering workstations to a local SSD/NVMe drive for installation. Reserve UNC paths for project archive repositories, never for the setup media.
• Where roaming profiles or folder redirection are mandated by corporate policy, build and maintain a corporate MST (Solution D) so that every workstation resolves shell folders to local paths during the MSI bootstrap stage.
• Decommission network shares from the User Shell Folders registry key before retiring NAS hardware. Use the Group Policy Folder Redirection extension to enforce local defaults at next sign-in.
• Update to the latest TIA Portal service pack (V15.1 Update 9 or later) whenever practical. The newer setup framework resolves shell folder paths at install time, eliminating this entire failure class.
• Maintain a SetShellFoldersLocal.ps1 script in the engineering workstation deployment image to reset all known folders to canonical local paths on every re-imaging cycle.

Field-Engineer Notes

The InstEd workaround (Solution B) is the only one that has been confirmed by independent reports to work on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1 with the exact \\Mywag320n\hdd_1_2\Pictures\Pictures path string. On Russian-localized workstations the same root cause manifests through redirected Мои документы (My Documents) folders relocated to drive D:; moving them back to C: resolves the failure. In both cases the failure is identical at the API level - the MSI bootstrap cannot enumerate the directory returned by SHGetFolderPath. Treat it as a generic class of failure, not a Siemens-specific bug.

For Microsoft Installer behavior, the authoritative reference is the Windows Installer documentation on Microsoft Learn, with specific error code semantics in Error Codes (Windows Installer) and the SHGetFolderPath reference page.