Can't activate trial license

[denijeur 0]

When I try to activate a trial license on a first time installed Nod32 Antivirus I'm getting the following error message:

 

 

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Activation Failed 

Error creating temporary file name

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Version info:

 

Eset NOD32 Antivirus Version 7.0.302.26

Windows 8.1 Pro Build 9600

 

I googled that error message and found a similar error message appeared when trying to update the virus signature DB, so I tried solutions proposed for that problem, namely:

 

1. Cleared Temp folders: C:\Windows\Temp and C:\Users\MyUserName\AppData\Local\Temp\

2. Deleted those folders and created them anew

3. Cleared Update Cache in NOD32

4. Checked the environment variables TEMP and TMP, they are fine (pointing to the existing temp dir in my user profile dir).

 

 

The error persists.

 

Please help.

 

[Marcos 5,277]

Did you also check the c:\windows\temp folder? If emptying it doesn't help, it could be a permission issue. In that case, a Process monitor log will shed more light.

[denijeur 0]

Marcos, thanks for answering.

 

I had checked, then cleared, then recreated C:\Windows\Temp folder. Unfortunately that didn't help.

 

Thanks for telling me about the Process Monitor tool, I didn't know about it. I downloaded it from Microsoft site, filtered all suspicious lines, including this one:

 

Process: ekm.exe

Operation: QueryOpen

Path: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\%USERP~1\AppData\Local\Temp\

Result: PATH NOT FOUND

 

The path looks weird enough, but after I had created this folder (C:\Windows\SysWOW64\%USERP~1\AppData\Local\Temp\) activation succeeded. I mark this topic as solved and I thank you again.

 

Still I wonder why this weirdly named folder was necessary at all.

 

EDIT: a few typos.

Edited January 30, 2014 by denijeur

[Marcos 5,277]

For some unknown reason, Windows API returns this weird and non-existing path to the temp folder. If you run echo %TEMP% in the command-line console, it should return the same path. Unfortunately, I was unable to find more information about the weird path so it will remain a mystery as to why Windows returns it

[denijeur 0]

No, actually the %TEMP% variable is set correctly. See the screenshots. 

 

hxxp://i.imgur.com/mIRBW5B.png

 

hxxp://i.imgur.com/5dXRN3u.png

[Arakasi 549]

From programming experience, you get a similar path due to the fact your running the windows service using different accounts.

SYSTEM account for example, goes out there to c:\windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\local\temp , or add the SysWOW64\, so imagine it being ran under that account and not user, and failing. You would have a variable that is....

c:\windows\syswow64\config\systemprofile\Appdata\local\temp , windows may insert  %userp~1 as a type of junction or shortcut for the path. Which leads to additional scenario following here:

 

Also if behind the scenes code is using GetTempPath() , there are many variables that can cause it to get thrown off, some of which include variable being too long, in this case we see a tilde sign in the string of your path. Possibility.

Permissions of course not being write on the directory you land on is unfortunate, lol.

 

We may never know not being able to reproduce it, but i hope this dev session helps with the head scratching.

[denijeur 0]

Arakasi, I have just reviewed environment variables of all the users, and they all have %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp value in TEMP 

 

Anyway, looks like you are right, probably some function shortens  %USERPROFILE% to  %USERP~1 while parsing this path thus causing the trouble.

 

I just wonder why I'm the only one reporting it, my configuration doesn't seem so odd out.