I searched high and low and there isn't much documented about it, at least nothing that fixed it for me on a Windows Server 2012 R2 XenApp server.
I'll cut to the chase, the ultimate problem is that the stupid installer program crashes if it can't find the STARTUP folder in the All-Users menu. It doesn't even put anything in there, at least not the program I was installing, Modelogix. The more frustrating issue is that it doesn't tell you what the problem is, just the useless error code mentioned above. Err!! So I spent countless hours troubleshooting this.
All the other solutions out there must only work in Windows 7 and below, not Windows 8 or Server 2012 and above.
Other solutions say to manually create the following folders if they are missing:
1. C: > Users > ("Yourname" Windows account ) > My Documents
2. C: > Users > ("Yourname" Windows account ) > AppData > Local
3. C: > Users > ("Yourname" Windows account ) > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > Windows > Start Menu > Programs > Startup
4. C: > Users > Default > Documents
5. C: > Users > Default > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > Windows > Start Menu > Programs > Startup
Source: https://community.flexerasoftware.com/showthread.php?207204-InstallScript-Setup-Launcher-Unicode-Has-Stopped-Working-%28Windows-message%29
The problem is that Windows 8 and Server 2012 don't use C:\USERS\DEFAULT for the all-users area any longer!!
In Windows 8 and Server 2012 and above, they use the hidden root folder C:\PROGRAMDATA. To be 100% sure on your system type SET ALL from a command prompt; this will display the value for the ALLUSERSPROFILE system variable and will tell you the path.
So for me, all I needed to do to fix the issue was to create the STARTUP folder in the following path: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
We had removed it as it wasn't used and I was trying to simplify the menu for our users. This folder is hidden but you can manually type it into windows explorer, or change your settings to view hidden folders.
Once I created it in there, tada, the stupid setup program would run. I believe Flexera may have fixed this bug but your software vendor may still be using this older version.
Let me know if this helped YOU!!
