Microsoft Access 2003 Runtime on Windows Vista

Isn't Vista proving to be very entertaining? Windows Vista is certainly Genuine Microsoft...Genuine garbage.
I have a client that is running Vista and a program that I developed that runs on MS Access. He installed the runtime version of Access 2003, and every time he opens the application he gets the Windows Installer Dialog: "please wait while windows configures microsoft access 2003 runtime".
When it opens, several errors are logged and then Vista shuts it down.
I tried all the usual Vista things...Turn off UAC, run in compatibility mode, turn off Aero Glass. Tried re-installing several times and with various installations of Office SP2 & SP3. Nothing would make it work, it always gave the "Please wait while windows configures Microsoft Access 2003 Runtime".

I looked in the error log, and found some entries for the msiinstaller:
Detection of product '{901C0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}', feature 'ProductNonBootFiles' failed during request for component '{22056900-C842-11D1-A0DD-00A0C9054277}'

Also:
The resource 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\' does not exist.

I tried the resolution for this error:

a.) go to the actual terminal server console
b.) go to start\run command line and key in the following:
regedt32
c.) check the permissions to the following registry keys:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer
System and Admins - Full Control
Everyone- Read


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Comp­o
nents
System and Admins - Full Control
Everyone- Read


HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
System and Admins - Full Control
Everyone- Read


HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip
System and Admins - Full Control
Everyone- Read


HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer
System and Admins - Full Control
Everyone- Read


HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Components
System and Admins - Full Control
Everyone- Read


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes
System and Admins - Full Control
Everyone- Read

After updating the permissions, it worked. Note that HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip was completely denied, even to admins, so I had to take ownership of that one and then add permissions to it. Some program must have taken ownership of the key and then locked everyone out.