SharePoint installation problem is date related

I seem to be bumping into SharePoint issues at the moment. Okay, last week’s wasn’t SharePoint specifically and was down to dcpromo, but only came to light installing WSS.

Now we have this one:

833019 - You Receive an Error Message When You Install Windows SharePoint Services, Create a New Content Database, or Provision a New Virtual Server

You get one of the following errors:

• Metadata manifest ‘C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions60binsqmcfg.dll’ does not exist or has invalid signature. (Error code: 2779).
• Metadata manifest ‘C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions60binsqmsto.dll’ does not exist or has invalid signature. (Error code: 2779).

The problem is mysteriously date related. The code checking the validity of the DLL’s is apparently broken and stops working after November 24, 2003. The current work around is to set the date back on the server, a less than comfortable experience. Hopefully there will be a new release soon with a fix.