Windows MSI Installer "Service Failed to Start" Error

When installing MongoDB 4.2.5 on Windows 10 using the MSI package:

• If specifying a custom install directory, and
• Installing as a Windows service,

The follow error often appears:

Service 'MongoDB Server' (MongoDB ) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services"

Status above progress bar just before error was "Starting services"

Tested with an administrator account.

The following custom directory locations all failed when I used the "create a new folder" button in the installer:

• C:\TESTMDB
• C:\TEST\TESTMDB
• C:\Users\myuser\Desktop\TESTMDB

(none of these folders were present on filesystem after exiting the installer post-error, whether using either "cancel" or "ignore").

The following custom install directory locations all failed without using the "create a new folder" button in the installer (i.e. using an existing directory):

• C:\Users\myuser\Desktop
• C:\TESTMDB2 ( I created this directory outside of the installer beforehand)

This occurs with both Community and Enterprise editions.

I only have a few Windows 10 boxes to test on at present unfortunately, but this occurs on all of them.

Probably due to Windows' UAC and permissioning restrictions, so there may not be a ton we can do about this, but I imagine it bears looking into. I'd like to create a DOCS ticket to update our Windows MSI install instructions with any findings or recommendations. The initial report of this issue came from a DOCs reader through our feedback channel.