Csdrhrt

My niece asked me to have a look at some problems on her Windows 8 PC. On of her points was that she thought there is/are virus(es) on it. So the first thing I tried was install Avast:

"The installer cannot extract VPS files to [temp path]"

Then AVG:

"Unable to extract setup contents. [...] make sure you have administrator right. (can not create temp folder archive)

Her login account is an administrator's. Next I tried Firefox:

"Can not create temp folder archive"

WPS office:

"error writing temporary file. Make sure your temp folder is valid."

So the returning message is that the temp folder can't be written to. How do I fix this? Can this indeed be caused by a virus? If yes, then I have a chicken-and-egg problem: to fix it I have to install an anti-virus program, but I can't install one until it's fixed.

(Note: I'm a Windows 7 user myself, and have little experience with Win 8. IMO it's the least intuitive, and therefore the most user-unfriendly OS ever. I didn't even find a way to shut down the computer, go figure. So please bear with me.)

edit

upon request by and31415, the result of icacls %temp%:

C:UsersLynnAppDataLocalTemp NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM:(OI)(CI)(F)  

                             INGEBOUWDAdministrators:(OI)(CI)(F)  

                             LYNNLynn:(OI)(CI)(F)  

                             INGEBOUWDGebruikers:(OI)(CI)(RX)  



Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files  

("ingebouwd" is Dutch for "built-in")

This may occur due to many reasons like problem with user profile, limited permission to temp folder, or may be due to third party programs.

Fix I: Fix Corrupted User Profile:

To do so simply create a new User Profile with 'Administrator' type and try installing software using the new Administrator account. If it works then delete the old account after backing-up data.

(Try restarting your system for better result).

Fix II: Change Ownership permission of temp Folder:

Case A: Take Ownership of temp folder with simple click Read this Article.

Case B: Change Permission of temp folder using this Guide.

Case C: Working with TrustedInstaller.

Fix III: Changing 'Startup Type' of Windows Installer service:

To do so open "service.msc" as administrator and locate "Windows Installer" Service and

double click to open properties.

Change "Startup Type" to 'Automatic'.

Now go to Recovery tab and in the First failure & Second failure select option 'Restart the Service' and click on Apply and then OK.

Fix IV: If all the above methods does not worked then:

(i) Try disabling your antivirus and firewall.

(ii) Uninstalling Adobe Acrobat and changing temp folder permissions to default also worked for some users.

(For better result try restarting your system after each fix or sometimes after cases)

I had the same problem on a Windows Vista PC after I deinstalled the Avast Premier edition and wanted to install the Avast free version. I did put the avast_free_antivirus_online.exe file in the C:usersyournameAppDatalocaltemp- directory and started the exe from this directory, then the install was succesfull.