Installation Has Failed On Windows 8.1

balenaEtcher
1

I Was Installing banellaEtcher On My Dell Laptop Running Windows 8.1 But It Showed An Error Saying Installation Has Failed, I Repeated It About 10 Times And The Same Error Came Up.

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2

balenaEtcher x86/x64 fails to install on 32-bit Windows 8 SP 1

Wanting to install a modern Ubuntu distribution on friend’s old computer that runs Windows 8 SP 1. Instructions for Ubuntu install say to use balenaEtcher, but it needs an installer and the installer won’t run.

It shows some kind of green logo box but then shortly fails with:

balenaEtcher fail
balenaEtcher fail383Ă—199 13.8 KB

Clicking on “Open Setup Log” opens the file at C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\SquirrelTemp\Squirrel-Install.log which contains:

[10/05/25 12:42:14] info: Program: Starting Squirrel Updater: --install .
[10/05/25 12:42:14] info: Program: Starting install, writing to C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\SquirrelTemp
[10/05/25 12:42:14] info: Program: About to install to: C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\balena_etcher
[10/05/25 12:42:14] warn: Program: Install path C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\balena_etcher already exists, burning it to the ground
[10/05/25 12:42:15] info: CheckForUpdateImpl: Reading RELEASES file from C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\SquirrelTemp
[10/05/25 12:42:15] info: CheckForUpdateImpl: First run, starting from scratch
[10/05/25 12:42:15] info: ApplyReleasesImpl: Writing files to app directory: C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\balena_etcher\app-2.1.2
[10/05/25 12:42:18] info: LogHost: Rigging execution stub for balenaEtcher_ExecutionStub.exe to C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\balena_etcher\balenaEtcher.exe
[10/05/25 12:42:23] info: ApplyReleasesImpl: Squirrel Enabled Apps: [C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\balena_etcher\app-2.1.2\balenaEtcher.exe]
[10/05/25 12:42:23] error: ApplyReleasesImpl: Couldn't run Squirrel hook, continuing: C:\Users\Caleb\AppData\Local\balena_etcher\app-2.1.2\balenaEtcher.exe: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): The specified executable is not a valid application for this OS platform.
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithCreateProcess(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Squirrel.Utility.<InvokeProcessAsync>d__11.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<>c__DisplayClass10_0.<<invokePostInstall>b__0>d.MoveNext()
[10/05/25 12:42:23] error: IEnableLogger: Failed to invoke post-install: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): The specified executable is not a valid application for this OS platform.
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<>c.<invokePostInstall>b__10_6(ProcessStartInfo info)
   at Squirrel.EnumerableExtensions.ForEach[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source, Action`1 onNext)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<invokePostInstall>d__10.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Squirrel.Utility.<LogIfThrows>d__42.MoveNext()
[10/05/25 12:42:23] fatal: Finished with unhandled exception: System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The specified executable is not a valid application for this OS platform.
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<>c.<invokePostInstall>b__10_6(ProcessStartInfo info)
   at Squirrel.EnumerableExtensions.ForEach[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source, Action`1 onNext)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<invokePostInstall>d__10.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Squirrel.Utility.<LogIfThrows>d__42.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<ApplyReleases>d__2.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.<FullInstall>d__11.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task)
   at Squirrel.Update.Program.<Install>d__4.MoveNext()
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ThrowIfExceptional(Boolean includeTaskCanceledExceptions)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait(Int32 millisecondsTimeout, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at Squirrel.Update.Program.executeCommandLine(String[] args)
   at Squirrel.Update.Program.main(String[] args)
---> (Inner Exception #0) System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): The specified executable is not a valid application for this OS platform.
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<>c.<invokePostInstall>b__10_6(ProcessStartInfo info)
   at Squirrel.EnumerableExtensions.ForEach[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source, Action`1 onNext)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<invokePostInstall>d__10.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Squirrel.Utility.<LogIfThrows>d__42.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.ApplyReleasesImpl.<ApplyReleases>d__2.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Squirrel.UpdateManager.<FullInstall>d__11.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ValidateEnd(Task task)
   at Squirrel.Update.Program.<Install>d__4.MoveNext()<---

If the installer is for x86/x64 then I expect it to work on x86 operating systems like 32-bit Windows 8 Service Pack 1.