How to fix endless reboot loop installing Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 - message: A previous installation required a reboot of the machine for changes

Question

Installing Microsoft® ODBC Driver 17 on windows 10. During the install, Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server setup stops and shows "A previous installation required a reboot of the machine for changes to take effect. To proceed, restart your computer then run Setup again. rebooted but not fixed.
4 reboots and then tried install again. Same issue.

Microsoft ODBC 13 driver installs and uninstalls without any issues.

I've reviewed Microsoft support site and found nothing that describes this issue.
There are notes about odbc 13 and 17 causing conflict. odbc 13 is not installed.

checked this potential for SQL Server install requiring reboots, but nothing in my registry for PendingFileRenameOperations.

Has anyone found the clue that Driver 17 is using to think it needs another reboot to continue? I need to get SSMS installed and it has a dependency on ODBC Driver 17.

windows 10 updated to current. doing install as admin.

Answer 1

I have found one another solution under https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9pq3fUOO3s that worked for me when I faced problems with ODBC Driver 17 installation while updating Microsoft SQL Server.

It basically requires cleaning the value of PendingFileRenameOperations (replacing the multi-string value with an empty string) under the registry key Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager.