Why do I receive the error “Installation ended prematurely because of an error” on a Windows Vista machine?

Some users may encounter the following error message when attempting to install Stata on a Windows Vista machine:

“Installation ended prematurely because of an error.”

This occurs immediately after the welcome screen.

There are many things that may cause this problem. They are mainly related to some Microsoft Windows system DLL configurations.

1. The most likely cause is that the VBScript.DLL is not properly registered.
   The solution: Register the VBScript.DLL file.
   
   
   1. Go to the Windows Start menu -> All programs -> Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.
   2. In the command prompt, enter the following command:

           regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\vbscript.dll
      

   3. Press Enter and the next line should have a message saying the registration was successful.
   4. You can now run the installation again and it will install correctly.
2. If the above does not fix the problem, you can try a GUI-less silent installation.
   
   
   1. Make sure you are logged in as an administrator (not just running the setup as an administrator).
   2. Go to the Windows Start menu -> All programs -> Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.
   3. Issue one of the following commands in the Command Prompt, assuming drive D is the DVD drive with the Stata 13 installation DVD:
      
      To install 32-bit Stata/IC, type

           D:\Setup.exe /qn ADDLOCAL=Ado,Core,StataIC32
      

      To install 64-bit Stata/IC, type

           D:\Setup.exe /qn ADDLOCAL=Ado,Core,StataIC64
      

      See FAQ: How can I install Stata from the command line without GUI under Windows? for a complete list of options regarding this type of installation.
3. If steps 1 and 2 do not fix the problem, make sure that you have properly downloaded and installed Service Pack 2 for Vista, and try the instructions in step 1 again.