Problem

This article explains how to resolve the Installation Manager Log Error: "Internal error: The Windows Installer for this product component did not run as expected: CostFinalize".

This error can show up when installing or upgrading SOLIDWORKS. This typically has to do with limited file access on a network drive. The root cause of this error is that the Windows User Profile is on a network drive instead of the local computer, or the installer is specifying a network location for the toolbox.

By design, the SOLIDWORKS installation files are stored natively on the local C drive by SOLIDWORKS in: C:\Users\username\Documents\SolidWorks Downloads\SOLIDWORKS 20XX SPX.X. If this folder is on a network drive instead of the local drive (using re-directed folders), the SOLIDWORKS Installation Manager is going to have issues.

We can do an Installation Manager Log file search for "SourceDir" or "\\" to find an entry showing \\nwdrive\users. The double backslash is used to direct programs to a network location. Here is an example from a recent IM Log file:

This Installation Manager is running from: {0: \\rdd-fs1\users\Tom$\My Documents\SolidWorks Downloads\SOLIDWORKS 2015 x64 SP01.1\sldIM}

In this case, the user Tom's profile is not in the native location C:\Users\Tom. Instead, it is located on the network at \\rdd-fs1\users\Tom$. This affects the SOLIDWORKS installation manager and its ability to access the user profile.

Solution

Try the following in order:

1. Move the user folders back to the local computer and re-run the installation. This is by far the best solution so far as a normal SOLIDWORKS installation goes.
2. Create a local user profile and run the installation with the local user profile. That should allow the installation to run as expected.
3. Reference the redirected Documents folder using a full UNC path rather than a mapped drive
4. Reset the permissions on the "roaming" Users profile folder and all the subordinate files and folders to read write for this user. Sometimes effective depending on Group Policy at the company network.

For additional support, existing customers can submit a ticket or new customers can contact Hawk Ridge Systems.