You could try to install MSI 4.5, .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 and then run the Visual Studio 2008 setup (as administrator) - in this way you will have a chance to a better error message.
EDIT: I am using Virtual CloneDrive for installation from ISO, so far it worked just fine (in windows xp and windows server 2003/2008 with Visual Studio 2008 trial, Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and MSDN).
Has anyone seen Microsoft's requirements for VS2008 trial? They are:
"5400 RPM hard drive"! Not "5400 RPM or faster hard drive". Does this mean my 10K RPM grunters won't work?
Anyway, enough ranting. Some things to try:
1/ I don't trust installing from ISOs (your comment on the F drive points to DAEMON tools as a possible problem there). I also don't trust Microsoft burning utilities. Try burning with a decent program and see if that helps. Or get 7zip and extract all the files from the ISO to an install directory on your hard disk and install it from there.
2/ The lack of a license indicates the file was corrupt. This may have been the downloaded file or the possible fact that you FTP'ed it across in ASCII mode.
3/ Check the filesize and md5sum of the ISO against the one you successfully installed on XP.
4/ Post the log file (or the errors from it at least) so we can help you out.
Well, my computer came with a NERO 7 essentials CD. I installed this product and I noticed that there was an option to "burn an existing image" onto a cd or dvd. I did that. And I ran the newly created DVD as if it were a new product.
My first indication that things were working now was that the product license came up.
And now the entire installation is running smoothly.
Solved