Abaqus Learning Edition installation fails at WatchDog_TaskKill (Creating child process failed, not a valid Win32 application)

Hi everyone,

I am trying to install the Abaqus Learning Edition on a private Windows 64-bit machine and keep getting the following error, reproducibly.

Creating child process failed. Log Id is 0014
%1 is not a valid Win32 application.
taskkill /F /IM DSYSysIRManager.exe
Action LaunchAppAction from feature CODE\\win_b64\\System failed.
Action ID: WatchDog_TaskKill

The installation log additionally shows:

Failed error ids:
- CODE\\win_b64\\System:WatchDog_TaskKill
Installation of SIMULIA Abaqus Learning Edition (CODE\\win_b64\\QSU.prd): failed.
CODE\\win_b64\\InsDataFW_SE DONE condition is false.

What I have already ruled out.

The media are complete. I extracted with 7-Zip and DSYInsMediaCheck runs through to 100 percent without any errors.

taskkill works. where taskkill correctly returns C:\\Windows\\System32\\taskkill.exe, and taskkill /? prints the normal help output.

The PATH is intact and includes System32. echo %COMSPEC% correctly shows C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe.

Both setup.exe and setup_noUAC.exe were run as administrator, and both fail at the same point.

Windows Defender was already fully disabled during the attempt, so the error persists even without real-time protection. Defender ASR is not configured. No third-party security software is installed.

Has anyone seen and solved this WatchDog_TaskKill error during child process creation? Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance