Error: Installation of Microsoft Identity Extensions Requires .Net Version 3.5 or 4.0

Scenario: Offline/Online (With/without internet connection on server) SharePoint 2013 Foundation Farm setup on Windows Server 2012. Please note this error was shown after enabling .Net Framework Version 3.5 or 4.0 on the server. All the prerequisites were manually installed on the server.

Note: From Software & Hardware requirements for SharePoint 2013 given Prerequisites for SharePoint 2013 I can see that the identity extensions are available only for Windows Server 2008 R2 and not for windows server 2012. 

The below error might pop up when you perform the installation of SharePoint 2013 Foundation Farm setup on Windows Server 2012.

Once you click Ok, the SharePoint 2013 the prerequisite shows up the below error screen 

At first instance after seeing this error you might conclude that we need to install .Net Framework 3.5 or 4.0 on the server to continue with the setup. You might be aware that .Net Framework 4.0 will be installed on the Windows Server 2012 during the setup of windows server 2012. If you want to install .net framework 3.5 on the server you need to enable this feature using Server Manager, from Add roles and Features, you can also install from command line you can refer here (http://www.danielclasson.com/install-net-framework-35-server-2012/).

The following error was logged in the review log files of the prerequisite setup

2012-11-14 21:17:12 - Request for install time of Application Server Role, Web Server (IIS) Role
2012-11-14 21:17:13 - Request for install time of Application Server Role, Web Server (IIS) Role
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Request for install time of Application Server Role, Web Server (IIS) Role
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Install process returned (0)
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - [In HRESULT format] (0)
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Beginning download of Microsoft Identity Extensions
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252368
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Size of download of "Microsoft Identity Extensions" in bytes is "2663"
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Download of "Microsoft Identity Extensions" completed successfully
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Installing Microsoft Identity Extensions
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - "C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe" /i "C:\Users\SPA37F~1.ADM\AppData\Local\Temp\IDF6B7.tmp.msi" /quiet /norestart
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Install process returned (0X654=1620)
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - [In HRESULT format] (0X80070654=-2147023276)
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Last return code (0X654=1620)
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Reading the following DWORD value/name...
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Flags
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - from the following registry location...
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\UpdateExeVolatile
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Reading the following string value/name...
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - PendingFileRenameOperations
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - from the following registry location...
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Reading the following registry location...
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Error: The tool was unable to install Microsoft Identity Extensions.
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Last return code (0X654=1620)
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Options for further diagnostics: 1. Look up the return code value 2. Download the prerequisite manually and verify size downloaded by the prerequisite installer. 3. Install the prerequisite manually from the given location without any command line options.
2012-11-14 21:17:14 - Cannot retry

Solution:  After reviewing the log files I figured out the following things

1.       The msiexec.exe file specified here 2012-11-14 21:17:14 - "C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe" is missing on the windows server system 32 folder, not sure how this happened. To fix this error run the following command on the windows run window msiexec /regserver

2.       Installing Microsoft Identity Extensions from command prompt.In order to perform this use the below command

C:\Windows\System32>msiexec.exe /i "C:\SharePoint2013ServerFiles\prerequisiteins

tallerfiles\MicrosoftIdentityExtensions-64.msi" /quiet /norestart

Note: In the above command C:\SharePoint2013ServerFiles\prerequisiteinstallerfiles is the path where I had downloaded all the prerequisites for SP2013

This will install Microsoft Identity Extensions and creates registry entries , which will help the SharePoint 2013 Prerequisite installer to complete the setup

If anyone has found a better way to do this please feel free to a leave a comment.