Pharos Blueprint: InstallUtil.exe error prevents installation or upgrade of Blueprint Analyst or Collector, or causes an "importconfig" to fail install

Symptoms:

• ERROR: "Could not run executable 'InstallUtil.exe'...The specified executable is not a valid application for this OS platform."

• ERROR: "InstallUtil.exe is not a valid Win32 application."

• ERROR: "Access denied."

• ERROR: "Exception occurred while initializing the installation: System.BadImageFormatException. The format of the file <filename> is invalid."

• Cannot install Pharos Blueprint Analyst or Collector

• Cannot install Pharos Blueprint Service Pack

• Cannot install an "importconfig" file for data integration (HR or Device)

• The following dialog box displays:

Environment:

• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server

• Microsoft Windows 2008 Server

• Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server

• Microsoft Windows 2012 Server

• Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Server

• Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0.50727

• Microsoft .NET Framework v3.5

• Microsoft .NET Framework v4.0.30319

Cause:

The InstallUtil.exe application for the target Microsoft .NET framework has been corrupted. Normally, this shows by browsing to the correct Framework version directory (C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\...) and verifying that the size of InstallUtil.exe is 0KB.

Resolution:

If the same .NET framework version is installed on another system, it is a matter of copying InstallUtil.exe to the problem server and replacing the corrupted copy. Alternately, you may perform a Repair installation of the .NET framework version. On some systems (for instance, if the problem is with v2.0.50727 in Windows 2008 Server) this may not be possible or very inconvenient, so the "file copy" process is more suitable.