Error – Rule “Restart Computer” Failed. A Computer Restart Is Required. You Must Restart This Computer Before Installing SQL Server…

MS Exchange

I was playing with TMG & Exchange 2010 publishing and had to delete TMG & associated SQL Express 2008 installation. When I tried deleting SQL Express 2008 from the control panel, I got the error message below.

Rule "Restart Computer" Failed. A Computer Restart Is Required. You Must Restart This Computer Before Installing SQL Server

Restart Computer

Rule Restart Computer Failed

I am not a SQL expert, but I had to delete the installation to start fresh. The solution was to delete a registry entry and I was able to delete the SQL install.

Launch registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession Manager

Registry Edit

Delete the key "PendingFileRenameOperations" (Don’t restart the server, as it will put the registry key back).

Re-run the setup again and all will be green.

Restart Computer OK

Now that all showed green, I could successfully delete the SQL Express installation.

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