SQL Server 2005 Installation failed

This morning I decided it was time to set up a Virtual PC and install Biztalk Server 2006 R2 on it. I've done this several times and up to today I never encountered any installation issues. Well up to now...

I started out by using an existing Master VPC which I had laying around, it was a clean VPC (well at least that´s what I thought ) and it was running on Windows Server 2003R2 with SP2. Soon after I remembered the admin password I logged on and started installing the pre-requisites. This time I decided to use the manual 'Installing and Configuring Biztalk Server 2006 R2 on Windows Server 2003' Everything went just great untill I had to install SQL Server 2005, normally not a big deal (especially if you install it on a development VPC )

Boy I was wrong; it simply failed on me...  

Luckily I was able to resolve this issue rather fast as I remembered the lesson I learned a few years ago.  'Check the Event log, look at the first error and go from there. Remember google bing is your best friend!' And so I did.

I opened up the event log and backtracked the first error I got while I tried to install SQL-Server (to determine the time, I checked the SQLServer installation log file). The error I found simply stated 'Product: Microsoft Office 2003 Web Components -- Error 1706. Setup cannot find the required files.' Hmmm I thought so it says that it cannot find the required files. Well and then it hit me; what if the Master VPC I used was not as clean as I thought?

So I went into the 'Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs'  and surprise what did I see? A previously installed version of the Microsoft Office 2003 Web Components.

My instinct told me that I should press the remove button  and so I did. Once deinstalled I reckoned let's be sure to use the latest version of the before mentioned web components so I downloaded and installed it manually. And behold the installation went smoothly afterwards!

The only thing I don't get is, why didn't the SQLServer installer remove the old Microsoft Office 2003 Web Components itself and then install the latest one?

Anyway the lesson I learned today was:

 'Simply do not assume that a Master VPC is as clean as a whistle, always double check'