Systems and techniques to verify software installation. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: creating data that represents a new expectation for an installation result, for one or more resources associated with a software installer, the new expectation being a transition from an expectation of volatility to an expectation of stability for future software installs. A comparison of a current software installation with a previous software installation can be generated, and based on the comparison, resources that change in their installation result from the previous software installation to the current software installation, despite an expectation of stability for the resources, can be identified, and resources that have not changed in their installation result from the previous software installation to the current software installation, despite an expectation that the unchanged resources should change from the previous software installation to the current software installation, can also be identified.