Error 0x84b10001 when installing SQL Server 2012 on a machine with VS2013

Question

I'm trying to install SQL Server Express with Service Pack 1 on my Win8 Pro (x64) development machine and I'm consistently getting an error 0x84b10001 when trying to install it:

Antivirus is disabled during the installation (done as Administrator) and I tried 2 versions of the SQL Server Express package and I'm getting the same issue with both.
I'm getting the same issue whether I'm trying the x86 or x64 packages.

I suspect that the issue comes from the fact that Visual Studio 2013 has already installed some SQL Server packages but I do not see any way to update and modify these to add the Management Studio for istance.

Answer 1

Well, turns out that this cryptic error is due to an older instance of SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) being present.

After uninstalling MSDE, the SQL Server 2012 setup worked without errors.