StripSlash.EXE; Could not initialize installation. The system cannot find the path specified

Error Message

When installing ArcGIS Desktop to a mapped drive, the following error is encountered:

Could not initialize installation.
<drive letter>:\%INSTALL DIR%\ArcGIS\Support\StripSlash.EXE
The system cannot find the path specified.

If OK is clicked, 1904 errors with the following HRESULT numbers are encountered:

HRESULT -2147312566
HRESULT -2147024894
HRESULT -2147467259
HRESULT -2147220992

Cause

ESRI does not support installing ArcGIS Desktop to a mapped network drive. This type of installation does not function.

Solution or Workaround