How to fix .NET Framework 1.1 setup failure on Windows Vista build 5456

Important note: The issue described in this blog post only affects pre-RC1 builds of Windows Vista. If you are running Windows Vista RTM and have problems installing the .NET Framework, do not try this workaround because it does not apply to the RTM build and will not help. Please see https://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/454956.aspx instead of this blog post if you have problems installing the .NET Framework 1.1 on Windows Vista RTM.....

The .NET Framework setup team recently discovered a compatibility bug that will prevent the .NET Framework 1.1 from installing on the most recent build of Windows Vista that was released to the Windows Vista beta program members (build 5456). 

The underlying problem is that one of the type libraries registered by .NET Framework 1.1 setup is attempting to write to a registry sub-key that is incorrectly marked read-only in this build of Windows Vista. In order to workaround this issue, you will need to change owners and modify permissions on a registry sub-key on your system.

You can perform the following steps before installing the .NET Framework 1.1 to workaround this issue on Windows Vista build 5456:

  1. Click on the Start menu, choose All Programs, then Accessories
  2. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator
  3. From the command prompt, type regedit
  4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then Software\Classes\Interface\{65074F7F-63C0-304E-AF0A-D51741CB4A8D}\TypeLib
  5. Right-click on the TypeLib sub-key and choose Permissions
  6. Click the Advanced button
  7. Click on the Owner tab
  8. Select the Administrators group in the Change owner to: list and click Apply to change the owner of this sub-key
  9. Click on the Permissions tab, highlight SYSTEM and click the Edit button
  10. Check the Full Control check box and click OK to change the permissions on this sub-key for the SYSTEM account
  11. Close regedit

After performing the above steps, you should be able to re-run .NET Framework 1.1 setup and install successfully.

<update date="4/4/2007"> Added note at the top of this blog post to try to let users know that this workaround will not help in the final RTM release of Windows Vista. </update>