Recently I was installing a line of business system client and received the error “An installation support file could not be installed – catastrophic failure”. After a bit of troubleshooting, I found a simple solution.
- Go to the folder “C:\Program Files (x86)”
- Go to the view tab and select the tick box “Hidden Items“
- Rename the folder “InstallShield Installation Information” to “InstallShield Installation Information.old“
- Restart your installation and it should be successful.
Hi Jarrod,
I had this problem and your recommended solution worked perfectly. No more catastrophic failures. I was getting close to the point of doing a reset/re-install on Windows 10 but you saved me. Thank you so much for sharing this valuable tip.
Hey Richard,
Thats awesome! Glad I could help 🙂
AWESOME…….you saved the day.
I was installing an old Quickbooks 2005 accounting program onto my new desktop and kept getting the same error message. The steps you outlined were all I needed to get the install going.
THANK YOU.
Hey Glen,
Thanks so much for the comment! Glad I could help!
I am trying to uninstall Quickbooks 2007/08 as I have had a recent problem with the invoice side of this program (happened last Monday) and I want to reinstall again. But I am unable to uninstall after following your instructions. Any ideas? Angela
Hey Angela,
You should always start by uninstalling the program first, before trying steps like these; as they will break the uninstaller.
I would have a look at Solution 2 here. https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/product-delivery/clean-install-quickbooks-desktop/L6cDdojs7_US_en_US
Thanks very much. This is very helpful. Personally, I don’t know about this, and was about to re-install Windows 10.
No worries! Glad I could help.
I was trying to install some early 2000s Windows games and kept getting this catastrophic error for several of them. At first I chalked it up to Win10 having abysmal compatibility for older software, until I got the same error with a game I know I used just a few months ago on windows 10. Your fix worked like a charm. Would be interesting to know why install shield suddenly modified itself to stop working. Maybe just a sloppy windows update. Anyways, thanks a bunch.