Cannot install Windows 10 SDK – Unable to update the password-CodePudding

I am usually developing on Linux so please bear with me if I fail to understand some Windows 10 specific details.

For years, Visual Studio 2019 has been nagging me for not having it installed on a SSD. I bought myself a SSD for Christmas and decided to grant Visual Studio its wish. On the SSD, I created one partition formatted with NTFS. I removed my hard-drive and repurposed it for back-ups.

I downloaded the installer from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/de/vs/community/. It offered to install Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022 with these packages:

MSVC v143
C CMake Tools
Windows 10 SDK

Unfortunately, the installation procedure terminates with an error message "Opps, something went wrong". The log-file provides these details:

Package 'Win10SDK_10.0.19041,version=10.0.19041.1' failed to install.
Search URL
    https://aka.ms/VSSetupErrorReports?q=PackageId=Win10SDK_10.0.19041;PackageAction=Install;ReturnCode=1324
Details
    Command executed: "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio\Packages\Win10SDK_10.0.19041,version=10.0.19041.1\winsdkinstaller.exe" SetupExe=winsdksetup.exe LogFile="C:\Users\Hermann\AppData\Local\Temp\dd_setup_20211228141345_001_Win10SDK_10.0.19041.log" SetupLogFolder=windowssdk CeipSetting="on" ProgramFilesOrSharedDriveSdkPath="T:\\Windows Kits\10" SetupParameters="/features OptionId.AvrfExternal OptionId.UWPManaged OptionId.WindowsSoftwareLogoToolkit OptionId.SigningTools OptionId.UWPLocalized OptionId.UWPCPP OptionId.DesktopCPPx64 OptionId.DesktopCPPx86 OptionID.DesktopCPPARM OptionID.DesktopCPPARM64 OptionId.MSIInstallTools /quiet /norestart"
    Return code: 1324
    Return code details: Unable to update the password. The value provided for the new password contains values that are not allowed in passwords.
Log
    C:\Users\Hermann\AppData\Local\Temp\dd_setup_20211228141345_001_Win10SDK_10.0.19041.log
Impacted workloads
    Desktop development with C   (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.NativeDesktop,version=17.0.31804.368)
Impacted components
    Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0) (Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.19041,version=17.0.31804.368)

I also tried selecting to install a newer and an older version of the Windows 10 SDK. The error details "Unable to update the password." are the same. I am baffled the installer even needs to set a password somewhere. The link leads to a 404 error message – so no official help from Microsoft to get that way. Any idea how to overcome this problem?

Update:

User Dai was assuming I had replaced my system drive. Yet in fact, C:\ already resided on a SSD. It is not big enough to hold Windows 10, programs, games and data. That is why I usually install everything to another drive. This is the one I replaced.

Keeping this in mind, I tried installing the Windows 10 SDK again, this time by manually executing the command mentioned in Microsoft Visual Studio Installer's log-file. This produced a new log-file which provided some insight. Apparently the return code 1324 does not involve any password at all. It is a totally misleading interpretation. It rather complains about the installation path:

MSI (s) (0C:B0) [17:17:32:412]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding WindowsKitsParent property. Its value is 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\'.
MSI (s) (0C:B0) [17:17:32:412]: Note: 1: 1324 2: Windows Kits 3: 1 
MSI (s) (0C:B0) [17:17:32:428]: Product: Windows SDK -- Error 1324. The folder path 'Windows Kits' contains an invalid character.

Microsoft Visual Studio is already installed to my new SSD mounted at T:\. Yet the Windows SDK installer wants to install to C:\. I cannot change any of these paths during installation. They are locked. Further investigation leads to this post. The user reports:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Kits\Installed Roots\KitsRoot10 was set to "E:\Windows Kits\SDK". Changing to "C:\Windows Kits\SDK" fixed the problem

These registry values might also be involved:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0\InstallationFolder
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Kits\Installed Roots\KitsRoot10
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows App Certification Kit\InstallLocation

Drawing a conclusion, I assume that although it was possible in the past, current installers do not support installing to a non-default location. To me, this means I would have to migrate or reinstall Windows to the new SSD.

Update:

I just noticed that Windows SDK now is appearing in appwiz.cpl. However, I cannot remove the dysfunctional installation because of "Windows Kits" allegedly containing an invalid character. Reinstalling Windows seems to be the only option here. I am unwilling to put any more effort into this and rather ditch Windows support for my projects altogether.

CodePudding user response：

I had faced the similar issues with installing Visual Studio 2022. But what I did was I installed Visual Studio 2017 and then later update it through my Windows Update and separately downloaded C build tools in the download section of the same page you have shared link of. And it worked for me like a charm. Hope it helps you too.

CodePudding user response：

By sheer happenstance, I was able to make it work. While doing something else, I plugged in a USB-thumb-drive. I noticed Windows had not assigned it the usual drive letter E:\. The "missing" drive letter was not displayed in "My Computer" nor in the Windows "Disk Management" diskmgmt.msc, but listed by volman. I could not figure out which physical device it was referring to. Although it was not directly involved with anything, the MSI system apparently choked on it. I removed this "ghost" drive letter via volman E: /D. After dealing with that, the Windows 10 SDK installer worked just fine. The entire endeavour was simply because of the unclear error messages.