Error installing GitHub desktop "Application cannot be started, contact the application vendor." - windows

Question

I've recently upgraded from windows 7 to windows 10 and when installing GitHub desktop, I'm getting the following error:
"Application cannot be started, contact the application vendor."
When I click on details, there is the following error:
"Unable to install this application because an application with the same identity is already installed."
I tried several troubleshoots, such as:
running the .exe file as administrator;
deleting the 2.0 folder from Local/apps/
disabling windows defender
But none of them seems to work. I cant understand what the problem may be, since I had no trouble installing github desktop on windows 7.

Answer 1

EDIT This method solved my problem:
Hold Windows button + R
Type in %TEMP%
Delete the entire content of temp.

Answer 2

I fixed this problem by adding permissions to the UserName for the of the folder containing GitHub.exe:
Using the explorer paste "%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0
In the search box write "github.exe"
In the result list right-click the file & select open file location.
Right click the folder -> Properties->Security
Click [Edit...] for "Group or user names:"
Add the account user name to the list giving it full permission.

Answer 3

This may not apply to your situation, but here is what fixed the problem for me:
Find this file:
C:\Users[YOUR USER NAME HERE]\AppData\Local\GitHub\TheLog.txt
In that file, search for this string:
"System.Security.SecurityException: Requested registry access is not allowed."
If you find that, look down from that line, one at a time, until you find mention of some specific application. For me it was MS Visual Studio:
"at GitHub.IO.ExternalProgramLauncher.IsVisualStudioInstalled()"
Running as an administrator, run regedit and look for keys related to the application in question. If access to reading them is denied, rectify that by right-clicking on the name of the key and choosing 'permissions'. (I decline to provide instructions on how to use the permissions interface here, but it is fairly straightforward) If you can grant yourself permission, that may fix your problem. It worked for me.
If you want to find the exact correct key, download and use a tool from MicroSoft called 'Process Monitor'. Unfortunately, even when you filter to show only registry events, you will still have at least 25,000 or so to look through, and the list is not sortable. >_< This was not exactly easy, but by scrolling up from the bottom and looking for 'ACCESS DENIED' in the unsortable 'Result' column for a while I was able to find the exact registry event where access was denied which caused GH DT to fail. In my case it was this key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\VisualStudio.DTE.14.0
I ran regedit using my admin account, and ran it 'as administrator', found the key and changed the permissions. Oddly, it only worked when I added 'Administrators' (plural). When I added 'Administrator', it still refused to allow access to the key.
Hope this is related to your problem, or someone's who reads this. :)

Answer 4

Simply right click on the installation file and run as admin. It will automatically adjust itself to your system settings and install without error.