Ulysses Ludwig’Blog

Problem

Security Exception Uninstalling or Configuring WSS displays an error message in application event log stating “Failed to unprovision the SharePoint Central Administration Web Application”.

Explanation

I ran into this error the other day with a botched install of Windows SharePoint Services Infrastructure update. I could neither uninstall or run SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard

Solution

I tried everything from deleting the web application’s, app pools, to granting additional permissions to the IIS Admin com objects. Nothing worked until I uninstalled the Windows Internal Database per an Msft article I can no longer find. Viola, I was unable to uninstall and re-install SharePoint without issue.