Suggestions appreciated. Using Server 2008 to support small physician practice, 7 client computers. Needed email support so added Desktop Experience feature and Windows Mail worked perfectly. I made a mistake by uninstalling the DE feature for a reason that in retrospect had nothing to do with DE. Now trying to reinstall Desktop Experience I get: <Error>: Attempt to install Desktop Experience failed with error code 0x8000FFFF. Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED)) Found a reference to problem suggesting Program Files folder being redirected because it was on a separate volume from Windows Folder. That does not seem to be the case for this system. We need the email option back. Does anyone have suggestions? Here are parts of log file that seem relevant: 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:08.283 [CBS] installing 'DesktopExperience ' ... 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:08.283 [CBS] CreateSessionAndPackage: begin 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:10.779 [CBS] CreateSessionAndPackage: done 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:10.779 [CBS] ...parents that will be auto-installed: '<none>' 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:10.779 [CBS] ...default children to turn-off: '<none>' 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:10.826 [CBS] ...current state of 'DesktopExperience': p: Staged, a: Staged, s: UninstallRequested 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:10.826 [CBS] ...setting state of 'DesktopExperience' to 'InstallRequested' 4704: 2009-09-23 16:48:10.842 [CBS] ...'DesktopExperience' : applicability: Applicable 4704: 2009-09-23 16:49:33.178 [CbsUIHandler] Initiate: 4704: 2009-09-23 16:49:33.459 [InstallationProgressPage] Installing... 4704: 2009-09-23 16:49:35.300 [InstallationProgressPage] Verifying installation... 4704: 2009-09-23 16:49:35.815 [InstallationProgressPage] Installing... 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.380 [CbsUIHandler] Error: -2147418113 : 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.380 [CbsUIHandler] Terminate: 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.380 [CBS] Error (Id=0) Function: 'NativeMethods.GetPackageStatus(out status)' failed: 8000ffff (-2147418113) 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.380 [CBS] ...done installing 'DesktopExperience '. Status: -2147418113 (8000ffff) 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.380 [InstallationProgressPage] Verifying installation... 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.442 [Provider] Skipped configuration of 'CoreClientPackOptionalComponent' because install operation failed. 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.442 [Provider] [STAT] ---- CBS Session Consolidation ----- [STAT] For 'CoreClientPackOptionalComponent'[STAT] installation(s) took '125.1023953' second(s) total. [STAT] Configuration(s) took '0.0007116' second(s) total. [STAT] Total time: '125.1031069' second(s). 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.442 [Provider] Error (Id=0) Sync Result - Success: False, RebootRequired: False, Id: /RMTInstances/http___schemas.microsoft.com_sdm_Windows_ServerManager_ClientPack_2005_09_CoreClientPackOptionalComponentType_ebdb44d5-1ecc-4c3f-a2f1-c8d862402c0f.xml 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.442 [Provider] Error (Id=0) Sync Message - OperationKind: Install, MessageType: Error, MessageCode: -2147418113, Message: Attempt to install Desktop Experience failed with error code 0x8000FFFF., AdditionalMessage: Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED)) 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.754 [InstallationProgressPage] Sync operation completed 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:13.770 [InstallationProgressPage] Performing post install/uninstall discovery... 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:14.222 [CBS] LastModified CBS Time (UTC): 09/23/2009 22:50:02 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:14.222 [Provider] C:\Windows\system32\ServerManager\Cache\CbsUpdateState.bin does not exist. 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:14.222 [CBS] IsCacheStillGood: False. 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:14.222 [CBS] CreateSessionAndPackage: begin 4704: 2009-09-23 16:50:15.220 [CBS] CreateSessionAndPackage: done Thanks in advance. Happy to provide more information as needed. CFord93

Hi CfordHave you seen this Techent Article. Please look into this http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsserver2008r2general/thread/ef2451e6-411c-44b3-9ab8-43afc88fbb7b Deva

Deva_1002 I had found that reference and tried the remedies: In the details pane, right-click PendingXmlIdentifier , and then click Delete . If this value does not exist, go to the next step. In the details pane, right-click NextQueueEntryIndex , and then click Delete . If this value does not exist, go to the next step. In the details pane, right-click AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving , and then click Delete . If this value does not exist, go to the next step. None of the three values exist in the components subkey as suggested in the link you pointed out. The log file contains reference to CbsUIHandler error. I can find no references to that or other aspects of error messages. Appreciate your thoughts and any others you might have. CF

Hi CFPlease try this KB Article . Hope this may be helpDescription of the System Update Readiness Tool for Windows Vista, for Windows Server 2008, and for Windows 7 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821/en-usdeva Deva --Self-trust is the first secret of success.

That was an interesting suggestion and I downloaded and ran kb947821 without changing the problem. Not sure where to go next. I could try to get Microsoft support for issue. Is there a mechanism to decipher install logs for clues to origin of the error? CFord

Cford93,Did you find a solution? I am having the same problem with Desktop Experience, and theUSRT solution did not work either.

Hi, I had the same problem. Uninstall hotfixes: KB973540 and KB968816, reboot and then re-install the desktop experience feature. This will work now.Cheers, Jude

Thanks very much Jude, that seems to fix it.

I tried removing these hot fixes as well as every other suggestions in this article (and others) and rebooted I don't know how many times without success. I am getting the same CBS errors as above.Any other idea/suggestions?Thanks, Yves

Hello,Check if you have Webdav 7.5 installed and see if removing it allows Desktop Experience to installThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

I have the same problem that cford93 had in the first post. It started when I uninstalled DE. I can not reinstall for the same error:<Error>: Attempt to install Desktop Experience failed with error code 0x8000FFFF. Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED)) Had anyone found the solution to this yet? It appears that the uninstall did not remove all the elements of DE, and on my system I can not Uninstall hotfixes: KB973540 and KB968816. I believe they were not applied to my system (SBS 2008).

I've not been back to this exchange recently as on my Server 2008, uninstalling the 2 hotfixes above allowed me to reinstall DE. All is well, thanks to those who made the suggestion.

Hello. I had the same problem, i tryed to Uninstall the desktop experience and i alwyas failed for me.. Then I started the "Server manager" as Administrator (Run As) and it removed it successfuly. It asked me to restart the server and removed the feature. I hope this helps sinces I know I used alot of time on the problem. Regards René (DK)

I too am having the same problem. Seems the removal didn't completely remove DE, although my system thinks it did. Now it wont install again with the catastrophic error as described above. Has anybody found another solution yet? Removing those two hotfixes didn't resolve the issue for me, and I dont have Webdav installed.

Please see this blog for your reference http://blogs.technet.com/b/asiasupp/archive/2010/11/23/attempt-to-install-desktop-experience-failed-with-error-code-0x8000ffff-in-windows-server-2008.aspx