MiKTeX Installation Fails with "Executed process did not succeed"

A bit late to this, but finally managed to solve this "unknown option" issue after hours of tinkering with the setup options (even to the extent of reformatting Windows) but to no avail.

Apparently the initexmf.exe file does not like being renamed. According to a bug report with this issue: #2515 basic-miktex installer fails if the executable is renamed, it checks for the name of the invoker and only makes available certain options if the name matches.

Moral of the story: Don't rename the setup file.

Example: If it is "basic-miktex-2.9.6161-x64.exe", then leave it as it is. This should resolve the "unknown option" issue.

I tried finding and executing initexmf.exe. It was where the window said it was.

I got this additional information by running it as Administrator:

fileName="C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\x64\initexmf.exe", exitCode="1" Option -admin only makes sense for a shared MiKTeX setup.

Sorry, but "MiKTeX Configuration Utility" did not succeed for the following reason:

Option -admin only makes sense for a shared MiKTeX setup.

Error: The executed process did not succeed.

Apparently there is a logical error in the setup utility initexmf.exe that prevents it from completing an install of build 2.9.6942 for All Users, i.e. in C:\Programs. From Jorge Martinez' post, it can install for a single user.

I first ran into the problem by running MiKTeX Update (Admin) which fails. Re-running this update utility eventually results in non-functional MiKTeX including deleted Update utilities.

I deleted all MiKTeX folders in C:\Programs and C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local and ran the installation for MiKTeX build 2.9.6161, which I had saved from the original installation. This installer completed successfully and my TeXnicCenter 2.02 is fully functional again. I'll update when another build of MiKTeX appears and a check here shows that it works for All Users.

I had exactly the same problem installing MiKTeX on Windows ("The executed process did not succeed").

I solved it by saving the installation file directly under C: and then run it from there, the installation was then successful.