SharePoint installation - Appfabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code:1603

SharePoint 2016 is just around the corner and we have seen many errors encountered during the installation. Here is a commonly occurring error that was seen in SharePoint 2013 too.

While installing the required prerequisites you will come across this error -

There was an error during installation.

The Tool was unable to install Cumulative Update Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB2671763).

Appfabric installation failed because installer MSI returned with error code:1603.

You might want to re-try or re-install at this point since the 1603 generic MSI error does not give a clear indication of what is wrong.

Hold on and simply install the AppFabric 1.1 manually.

Download Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server from here and install it manually (restart the server if required). Once completed, re-run the prerequisite installer.