Unable to install GitHub Desktop Client for use with Unity

georgethink · February 25, 2021, 12:58am

I am currently trying to install the GitHub desktop program so I can use it with unity alongside a group I am working with on a university project. All other members of the group have been able to install the program, but whenever I try and run the installer I immediately get a pop-up telling me that the installation has failed.

I don’t really understand what the setup log is telling me when I read it, except that there is something called SquirrelTemp that installs during the installation, and then the installation fails when it attempts to write something from the RELEASES file in \AppData\Local\SquirrelTemp to the \AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\app-2.6.3 directory.

It then says “Rigging execution stub for GitHubDesktop_ExecutionStub.exe to C:\Users(my user)\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\GitHubDesktop.exe”.

Any assistance in how to fix this issue would be greatly appreciated, as I need to have the GitHub client installed on this machine as soon as possible.

steveward · February 25, 2021, 3:20pm

Welcome @georgethink! If you could upload the setup log file that is linked when the installation fails I can take a look and see what may be causing the failure. Thanks!

georgethink · February 25, 2021, 5:01pm

I cannot upload the actual file, so I’ve uploaded a screenshot of the file’s contents. Hopefully this helps.

If there are any additional files or things that might be needed to help resolve this issue, please let me know.

steveward · February 27, 2021, 2:24am

Thanks for sharing that. Can you confirm that you are running a 64-bit version of Windows?

georgethink · February 25, 2021, 11:11pm

Yes, I am definitely running 64-bit windows as far as I can tell. This is a screenshot from my system specifications:

steveward · February 26, 2021, 8:37pm

Are you running any antivirus software on this machine? If so, could you try temporarily disabling it to see if that allows you to install GitHub Desktop? That’s one common cause of installation failure.

georgethink · February 27, 2021, 12:01am

I’ve tried that, and I’ve tried it with both my antivirus and windows firewall disabled at the same time. I’ve also tried running the installer as administrator, still no luck.

byrneh · February 27, 2021, 1:49am

@georgethink.
Some other things you could try (no warranties)
Does running msiexec as administrator and a verbose/debug logging give any additional clues?

By any chance did it get as far as creating a folder and file in this location of similar C:\GitHub Desktop Installer\GitHubDesktop.exe

If it did you can try running that (that is a problem myself and some colleagues have experienced or more recent versions on locked down machines (never had the problem on my home laptop though)

If it didn’t you could trying extracting the GitHubDesktop.exe from msi and running the exe directly.

VeraWesterveld · July 6, 2021, 5:28pm

Dag GeorgeThink, ik heb nu exact hetzelfde probleem. Wat heb je gedaan om het opgelost te krijgen? Ik kan overigens ‘Open Setup Log’ niet openen, dus ik kan het log niet bekijken. Hij sluit onmiddellijk als ik daarop klik.