Can't Install Prey - W10 x64 v1803 [Resolved]

Help Windows
#1

Let us help you. Please tell us about…

  • Affected device DELL Latitude E5570
  • Operating system Windows 10 x64 v1803
  • Part of Prey not working Installation

Could you please describe the problem?

“Something went wrong when installing Prey. Check the log …”

Log say this :
Action ended 09:45:10: ValidateAndSetApiKeyRollback. Return value 1.
Action start 09:45:10: InstallFinalize.
CAQuietExec: Ensuring presence of config dir: C:\WINDOWS\Prey
CAQuietExec: Syncing C:\WINDOWS\Prey\prey.conf with C:\Windows\Prey\versions\1.8.1\prey.conf.default
CAQuietExec: Setting up this as current…
CAQuietExec: No version is set as current.
CAQuietExec: Setting permissions on C:\Windows\Prey\current
CAQuietExec: Running post_activate hooks…
CAQuietExec: Removing firewall rule for C:\Windows\Prey\versions\1.8.1\bin\node.exe
CAQuietExec: Adding firewall rule for C:\Windows\Prey\versions\1.8.1\bin\node.exe
CAQuietExec: Installing init scripts.
CAQuietExec: Error! StartService FAILED 1053:
CAQuietExec:
CAQuietExec: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
CAQuietExec: Error 0x80070001: Command line returned an error.
CAQuietExec: Error 0x80070001: CAQuietExec Failed
CustomAction CommandConfigHooksPostInstall returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 09:45:57: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.
Action ended 09:46:01: INSTALL. Return value 3.
MSI (s) (A4:38) [09:46:01:683]: Product: Prey Anti-Theft – Installation failed.

MSI (s) (A4:38) [09:46:01:683]: Windows Installer installed the product. Product Name: Prey Anti-Theft. Product Version: 1.8.1. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Prey, Inc… Installation success or error status: 1603.

=== Logging stopped: 03/08/2018 09:46:01 ===

#2

Can you provide any help at all ?

#3

Hi Jonathan,

Unfortunately, error 1603 is a rather generic error that doesn’t help much figuring out what’s wrong. In the past this happened to specific translations of Windows, but I can see that yours in in US English so that’s not the issue.

Could you please try using an older installer, just in case? You can see all of our packages here: https://github.com/prey/prey-node-client/releases

In case any of them works, Prey will automatically update to 1.8.1.

#4

Hi Fabian,

It is a French Windows 10 changed to “English (UK)” language.

I’ll try to install an older version and will get back to you.

2018-08-09 17_21_53-.png1017×861 199 KB

#5

I’ve installed 1.7.0 and… nothing ?

I don’t have anything to launch ?
I have a prey.log with this :

  PREY 1.7.0 spreads its wings!
  Current time: Thu Aug 09 2018 17:24:01 GMT+0200 (Romance Summer Time)
  Running with PID 11788 as xxxx over Node.js v4.4.5 on a x64 windows system (undefined)

   notice Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:01 GMT [updater] New version found: 1.8.1
     warn Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:01 GMT [updater] Starting upgrade process. Hold on tight!
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:02 GMT [updater] Error! Missing user credencials, update cancelled for now
    error Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:02 GMT Error: Upgrade to 1.8.1 failed. Exit code: 1
     warn Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:02 GMT [control-panel] Not configured. Waiting for user input...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:12 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:22 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:32 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:42 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:24:52 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:25:02 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:25:12 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:25:22 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:25:32 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:25:42 GMT [control-panel] Reloading config...
#6

So we’re making progress, at least. This time it finished the install process. Does 1.7.5 work?

Also, did you have Prey installed in the past prior to the current 1.8.1 attempt?

#7

I opened prey.conf to see what “credential” was missing and saw the api_key

# Your account's API key.
api_key =

I went and updated this value (needed to edit the file as admin)

Now i have this in the prey.log

  PREY 1.7.0 spreads its wings!
  Current time: Thu Aug 09 2018 17:36:12 GMT+0200 (Romance Summer Time)
  Running with PID 16220 as xxxx over Node.js v4.4.5 on a x64 windows system (undefined)

   notice Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:12 GMT [updater] New version found: 1.8.1
     warn Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:12 GMT [updater] Starting upgrade process. Hold on tight!
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:13 GMT [updater] Fetching version 1.8.1
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:13 GMT [updater] Downloading package: https://downloads.preyproject.com/prey-client-releases/node-client/1.8.1/prey-windows-1.8.1-x64.zip
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:23 GMT [updater] Got file: C:\WINDOWS\Temp\prey-windows-1.8.1-x64.zip
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:23 GMT [updater] Fetching checksums: https://downloads.preyproject.com/prey-client-releases/node-client/1.8.1/shasums.json
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:23 GMT [updater] Got checksum from remote: e493f5be473effdb5b7eef67a57248ae389ad71a. Calculating file hash...
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:23 GMT [updater] File checksum is valid! C:\WINDOWS\Temp\prey-windows-1.8.1-x64.zip
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:23 GMT [updater] Ensuring path doesn't exist: C:\Windows\Prey\versions\prey-1.8.1
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:23 GMT [updater] Unpacking to C:\Windows\Prey\versions
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:34 GMT [updater] Moving to C:\Windows\Prey\versions\1.8.1
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:34 GMT [updater] New version installed: 1.8.1
     warn Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:36 GMT [updater] Upgrade successful! See you in another lifetime, young one.

And

  PREY 1.8.1 spreads its wings!
  Current time: Thu Aug 09 2018 17:36:52 GMT+0200 (Romance Summer Time)
  Running with PID 13348 as xxxx over Node.js v4.5.0 on a x64 windows system (10.0.17134)

     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT Plugin loaded: control-panel
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT 1 plugins loaded with 0 errors.
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT Initialized.
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [triggers] Watching: connection, control-zones, location, network, power
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Starting trigger: connection
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Running: connection
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Starting trigger: control-zones
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Running: control-zones
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Starting trigger: location
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Running: location
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Starting trigger: network
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Starting trigger: power
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Running: network
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [actions] Running: power
   notice Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:53 GMT [control-panel] Updating value of location_aware to true
     info Thu, 09 Aug 2018 15:36:55 GMT [location] New location obtained! Making the Control Panel aware...

So I guess it’s OK ? I can see my device on the control panel
Can you confirm it’s working as intended ?

Pretty weird way to install the software ^^’ !!
I can’t imagine a ‘lambda’ user doing this

#8

Nope. First installation.

#9

I’m glad it’s working fine now! Thanks for the heads-up.

This is definitely not the way it should work, but I’m glad that you got it fixed. My guess is that it’s related to the translation, but that would be weird because both French and English are known to work properly :confused:

Anyway, if there’s any problem in the future, please drop us a line.

1 Like
#10

Ok, no worries.

Thanks for quick support and have a nice day !

#11

Futur User :

If you encounter the same isssue : https://github.com/prey/prey-node-client/releases

  • Install 1.7.0.

  • Go to C:\Windows\Prey and edit as admin prey.conf

  • search for
    # Your account's API key.
    (Line 35 for me)

  • right below it, update
    api_key =
    with your api key. (You can find it here : https://panel.preyproject.com/settings at the very bottom left of the page

  • When the file is updated, go in the Task Manager and kill the “Node.js” process. (Right click > end task)

  • Prey should launch itself back and upgrade successfully to the last version !

Cheers :tada:

1 Like
#12

I tried this, it didn’t work for me. A relatively new installation of Win 10 (about two weeks old, i.e. I haven’t messed with any permissions and only a few regular settings). 1.8.2 fails, as above. Tried installing 1.7.0, also fails; it gets almost to the end of the installation, with the bar almost the whole way, then rolls itself back and says installation not complete (“ended prematurely because of an error”). Language/region is English. Default install directory c:/windows/prey.