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Installing Zune 3.1 on Windows Server 2008 x64

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Ok you are probably wondering why you would ever need Zune software on your Windows Server 2008 x64 machine….well if you are like me, my primary machine is my notebook and I run Windows Server 2008 x64 so I can have Hyper-V.

Anyway, Microsoft released a new version of the Zune software the other day and I wanted to install the latest version on my machine.  Good – there is a native 64-bit version of Zune. Bad - the Zune installer blocks on Windows Server 2008 x64.

So how do you get around this issue?  You can extract the installation package and install by hand…..that gets around the installation block on OS version, but there is a catch, you MUST install as the local administrator. No you cannot install with an account that is a member of the local administrators group.

Here is the process

1) Download the Zune 3.1 package from here.  It is a 300+ MB package

2) Open a command prompt and launch the downloaded package with the /x option to extract it versus launch the installation.

ZUNEPACKAGE31.exe /x

3) Specify a folder to extract to, I used C:\TEMP\ZUNE31 as the directory

4) Go to C:\TEMP\ZUNE31\x64\PACKAGES

5) Right Click the ZUNE_X64.MSI and select Install

6) Answer the questions and it will install

Now go enjoy the music!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    PingBack from http://ps3gamevideo.com/pes-2009-oficial-trailer/

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Don, your workaround seems to have done it for me as well, running the Zune 4 software on server 2008 R2 x64.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I had the same issue at first with the MSI backing out of the install.  Here's how I got around it (running Windows Server 2008 Standard, 32-bit):

  1. Open a command-prompt with "Run as admininistrator".
  2. Navigate to the folder containing "zune-x86.msi" (should be in "/x86/packages/").
  3. Simply type in zune-x86.msi, hit enter, and let it run. Hope this helps.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I have followed your steps but Zune is crashing when it starts up (the GUI appears and then a few seconds later I get 'Microsoft Zune has stopped working' -> Debug / Close Program). Are there any pre-reqs that need to be run before installing Zune?

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    thanks for sharing...just what i was looking for. i don't think we're alone with the desktop running hyper-v!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks! You saved me from getting rather upset with Microsoft.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 06, 2010
    dead link bro - like the 6,000 other people that wrote this same article out there, everyone linked to MS who then removed the package. did anyone bother to download and KEEP the installer? 4.x anything won't run on 2008 anything. no matter what you do to install it - it won't run.

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2011
    followed these instructions and Zune runs well. However, it cannot detect my device, so cannot charge nor sync

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 28, 2012
    I got a firewall error while installing. :(

  • Anonymous
    July 17, 2012
    Got a firewall error on which clicked on OK however after the installation the following error is displayed : Problem signature:  Problem Event Name: APPCRASH  Application Name: Zune.exe  Application Version: 4.8.2345.0  Application Timestamp: 4e3c45e4  Fault Module Name: kernel32.dll  Fault Module Version: 6.0.6002.18449  Fault Module Timestamp: 4da47b2f  Exception Code: c0020001  Exception Offset: 00000000000170cd  OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.274.10  Locale ID: 1033  Additional Information 1: 3bc5  Additional Information 2: f8734f1329a6800c95e16943817e58d3  Additional Information 3: c169  Additional Information 4: aee51f02c43c85896af1179c4b0d075b Read our privacy statement:  go.microsoft.com/fwlink