While trying to download and install some Windows updates on a machine running Windows 2008 R2 Server Core, I got the following message and the updates failed.
This program can’t start because mscoree.dll is missing from your computer.
The updates in question are listed below.
KB2468871 – Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems
KB2533523 – Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems
KB2539636 – Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems
I couldn’t find anything on Google that was relevant so I started poking around in the Windows system directories, .NET Framework directories, and the registry to see what was going on.
The machine itself is running the x64 flavor of Windows, but apparently I did not install the WoW64 support for .NET and PowerShell.
A quick check at a PowerShell prompt confirmed this.
PS> Get-WindowsFeature Wow64*
Display Name Name
------------ ----
[X] WoW64 Support WoW64-Support
[X] WoW64 WoW64-ServerCore
[ ] WoW64 for .NET Framework 2.0 and Windows Pow... WoW64-NetFx2-Support
[ ] WoW64 for .NET Framework 2.0 WoW64-NetFx2
[ ] WoW64 for Windows PowerShell WoW64-PowerShell
[ ] WOW64 for .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5 WoW64-NetFx3
[ ] WoW64 for Print Services WoW64-PrintServices
[ ] WoW64 for Input Method Editor WoW64-InputMethodEditor
[ ] WoW64 for Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications WoW64-SUA
Once I installed those features (and restarted the server for good measure) all was well.
PS> Get-WindowsFeature Wow64-NetFx*,Wow64-PowerShell | Add-WindowsFeature
PS> Restart-Computer
Just putting this out there in the hopes that it helps someone else.