The error message is coming from InstallShield, the software Sun use to
package Java for Windows. InstallShield is a good product, but it's
obvioulsy complining about something.
This Sun article describes exactly the error message you are seeing, and how
to fix it - have you tried this yet?
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/6000040100.xml
As a start, try to remove any traces of old or failed Java installation
attampts. In addition to the steps suggested in the Sun article, you can
also run Windows Installer Cleanup Utility:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
to look for left-over crud on your system to be deleted.
If Java setup continues to fail, to this:
- download the Offline Java package for Windows, from here:
http://javadl.sun.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=11291
This will download a file called jre-6u2-windows-i586-p-s.exe to your hard
disk,. It is about 13MB in size.
- start and Administrative command prompt -
- go to Start menu, Accessories,
- find the Command Prompt icon and right click it,
- choose Run as Administrator
- change directory to the location of your downloaded Java file, eg:
C:\Users\User>cd Downloads
C:\Users\User\Downloads
- now run jre-6u2-windows-i586-p-s.exe with the paramteters "/lvx
javainst.log"; eg:
C:\Users\User\Downloads>jre-6u2-windows-i586-p-s.exe /lvx javainst.log
and press <enter>
This will cause the Java setup to create a text file, javaist.log, in the
current directory, logging every step of the installation process. This
won't fix the problem, as such. But if Java setup fails, you can examine the
resulting log file to get more details of exactly what it is unhappy about;
instead of the rather vague error message which appears in the UI. You can
open javainst.log using any text editor, such as NotePad. A successful
installation creates a log file about 500MB in size. If the installation was
successful, you can just delete the log file.
At this point if Java won't install, you may have more of a Java problem,
than a Vista problem as such. But let us know if you have
questions/comments/issues.
Hope this helps,