I had the same problem. I finally downloaded the whole SP1 smear and put it
on a CD. That wouldn't run. Turned out that I had a couple of "unsupported"
display languages in my machine. Once I deleted Romanian, Arabic and
Chinese, the CD installed great.
Jerry Jensen, a happy Vista user
(I got my copy of the "Ultimate" version by playing games on MS's Live
Search Club, it was only available for a month or two but I was there and
got it for nothing, actually, I had to earn 6,000 points back then).
offerings there are a bit tougher now Vista Home Premium is 20,000 points
and Office 2007 is 25,000. The X-Box toys disappeared before I could earn
30,000 back when.