Error 25003. Error occurred while initializing fusion

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vsnetsetup/archive/2013/09/30/error-25003-error-occurred-while-initializing-fusion.aspx

The Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 Setup may fail without any error message or the setup may crash during the install phase. You can find the below error message in the Setup log file (Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Setup_******_******-MSI_netfx_Core_*.msi.txt) under user temp folder(%temp%):

MSI (s) (18:60) [15:39:53:968]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=CA_InstallAssemblyDef.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8,ActionType=1025,Source=BinaryData,Target=InstallAssembly,CustomActionData=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ISymWrapper.dll;78168)
MSI (s) (18:00) [15:39:54:031]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI43B.tmp, Entrypoint: InstallAssembly
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Status: LANGID: 1033
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Entry: InstallAssembly started
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Status: CustomActionData: C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ISymWrapper.dll;78168
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Status: No ProductCode was passed in the CustomActionData. Using the current ProductCode.
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Status: ProductCode for assembly install/uninstall has been set to {F5B09CFD-F0B2-36AF-8DF4-1DF6B63FC7B4}
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Status: Loading C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\fusion.dll
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Error: Failure creating interface IAssemblyCache
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Error: CreateAssemblyCache() returned -2147024703
09/16/13 15:39:54 DDSet_Error: Error occurred while initializing fusion.
MSI (s) (18:5C) [15:39:54:109]: Product: Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile – Error 25003. Error occurred while initializing fusion.

The above error indicates that the Custom Action (CA_InstallAssemblyDef.3643236F_FC70_11D3_A536_0090278A1BB8) failed to install an assembly in the Global Assembly Cache. After debugging the issue, I found that dummy CRT file msvcr100_clr0400.dll was present on the system. The Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 carries dummy versions of these CRT files (the files contain no executable code) for various compat reasons.

As per the installer log, the dummy CRT files were already present before the installation took place:

MSI (s) (18:60) [15:38:31:703]: File: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcr100_clr0400.dll; Won’t Overwrite; Won’t patch; Existing file is of an equal version
MSI (s) (18:60) [15:38:31:703]: File: C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\msvcr100_clr0400.dll; Won’t Overwrite; Won’t patch; Existing file is of an equal version

I was able to resolve the issue by renaming the file msvcr100_clr0400.dll at the below two locations:

C:\Windows\System32\msvcr100_clr0400.dll
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msvcr100_clr0400.dll