Broken Windows Installer
I was fooling around with the Linux kernel source not too long ago (under the impression that I could build it in a VM on a 1GB Windows XP laptop to which I had access). However, I was dismayed to find that I could barely install Sun VirtualBox. The installer hung (thankfully after getting through all the required files) at the network configuration screen. Interestingly, I had failed at installing Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition as well – the downloads didn’t even begin. I convinced myself that getting the full ISO files was taking the easy out.
It wasn’t until later (ahem, a few weeks later) that I dug into the cause of the problem and looked into the Windows Installer. Turns out I was using v3.0.who-knows-what. The latest version of the installer from Microsoft fixes these “hanging” issues. You can find out which version of the installer you are running by… hold your breath… Start -> Run -> msiexec
And to think that I put this off for a few weeks!
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