Installing SpecAlign

Personal Log 2020-11-17

Problem Description

I was attempting to install SpecAlign onto my personal computer. The software installer was downloaded from this link.

I ran the installer (SpecAlign_2.4.1_setup.exe) using the default settings. During installation, I got the following error message:

Installation error message.

C:\Program Files (x86)\SpecAlign\NTGraph.ocx
Unable to register the DLL/OCX: LoadLibrary failed; code 14001.
The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail.
Click Retry to try again, Ignore to proceed anyway (not recommended), or Abort to cancel installation.

Initial Troubleshooting

I used the Retry option, which produced the same error message. After choosing the Ignore option, the files were extracted to the installation folder, but running the main executable produced a similar error message.

Error message when running executable.

I did some research on the error message, including running the sxstrace tool. Here is a link to Microsoft's documentation for this tool.

For example, here are the steps I followed to generate a logfile:

  1. Start the SpecAlign installer.
  2. Run Windows command prompt as administrator.
  3. Execute the following command (for example, from the desktop):

    sxstrace trace -logfile:sxstrace.etl

  4. Inside the SpecAlign installer, select a new installation folder and continue installation until the error message appears.
  5. Return to command prompt and hit enter to stop the trace.
  6. Run the following command to convert the trace file into a plain text file.

    sxstrace parse -logfile:sxstrace.etl -outfile:sxstrace.txt

Using command prompt to generate the log file.

Troubleshooting Part Deux

I did some more research and found a YouTube video. In the video, the presenter described how to locate the registry keys that may be causing problems. For reference, they are here:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners

There is a group of keys that look like the following:

x86_policy.9.0.microsoft.vc90.crt...

I noticed that the presenter had many similar x86_policy keys that were not present on my machine. In particular, I was missing a key that contained "mfc", which had been mentioned in the logfile generated with the sxstrace tool.

The error message that was present in the log file.

ERROR: Component identity found in manifest does not match the identity of the component requested. Reference is Microsoft.VC90.MFC,processorArchitecture="x86"...

Registry with missing mfc key.

The next part of the video said to check the versions of Microsoft's C++ Redistributable files and install them as necessary. In my case, I checked the broken installation of SpecAlign and found that it was last updated in 2009.

SpecAlign release notes, including the release date.

Fixing the problem

I did a search for Microsoft C++ Redistributables 2008 and downloaded the installer from this link.

Screenshot of the download link for 2008 Microsoft C++ Redistributables.

I ran the installer (vcredist_x86.exe), and then I was able to install and run the SpecAlign program without errors.

Installation of SpecAlign was successful. The SpecAlign interface.

I checked the registry to see what keys were added. The mfc key that was missing previously was now present.

Registry after install, showing mfc key.

TL;DR

I tried to install SpecAlign. During installation, there was an error message about incorrect side-by-side configuration. To fix the problem, I installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86), which was the closest version to the last version of the SpecAlign software (2009).