Cannot Install Windows SDK

If you are running 64-bit Windows 7 and always update your system using Windows Update, you might encounter the problem as below.

Windows SDK installation failed on Windows 7 and shows the error below.

A problem occurred while installing selected Windows SDK components.
Installation of the "Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7" product has reported the following error: Please refer to Samples\Setup\HTML\ConfigDetails.htm document for further information.
Please attempt to resolve the problem and then start Windows SDK setup again. If you continue to have problems with this issue, please visit the SDK team support page at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=130245.
Click the View Log button to review the installation log.
To exit, click Finish.

Windows SDK installation failed on Windows 7 without showing a sign of error.

It may also happen that the SDK installation runs through with a "success" message at the end - but nothing was actually installed. The only way to really find out whether the SDK was installed is to check the respective directory. C:Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1 or C:Files (x86)SDKs\Windows\v7.1 . If the subdirectory "v7.1" was created and has some content, the SDK was installed. The solution for this problem is the same as for the issue with the error message: Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable. (see below)

Resolution: Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable installations prior Windows SDK installation

Before the installation, I had the following Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable installations. Note that the x64 version is updated.

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable - 10.0.40219 Microsoft Corporation 15.2 MB 10.0.40219
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable - 10.0.30319 Microsoft Corporation 11.0 MB 10.0.30319

After a read at a post at MSDN Forums, I decided to remove and uninstall both of these redistributable installations.

[Edit:] There is now a description and solution available in the Microsoft Knowledge Base

Thereafter, I was able to install the Windows SDK 7.1 (web installer or ISO installers) completely.

After the installation, I had the following Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable installations. Notice the versions are different.

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable - 10.0.30319 Microsoft Corporation 12.1 MB 10.0.30319
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable - 10.0.30319 Microsoft Corporation 1.29 MB 10.0.30319

Thus, removing the newer Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable installations will fix this problem.

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The same problem can occur on Windows XP SP3. I used Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs to uninstall:

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable - 10.0.40219

I then re-installed Windows SDK 7.1, this time it completed successfully. Add or Remove Programs now shows:

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x86 Redistributable - 10.0.30319