I found the problem while installing VS2003.Net on XP. I am running the latest version of Avast! Home Edition. The VS2003.Net installer always states that there is an installation pending, and must reboot.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;830608
Basically avast! seems to be keeping a post-install item (mine happens to be “??\C:\WINDOWS\TEMP_avast4_\unp131499929” ) in the
“PendingFileRenameOperations” key under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
Once I renamed it, as the article states, I was finally able to install VS.Net.
I’m wondering if this is by design, or a bug. Either way, it cost me an hour of searching.
Cheers,
John