I'm on a Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 computer attempting to install SQL Server Express 2008. I was following the video tutorials.

The installation stops after showing the screen indicating it is installing the support files. I just finished my 7th attempt... with the same results! Before I get into too much tedious detail, has this ever happened to anyone else? I searched the forum and couldn't find anything.

I've never run into that.

You might want to check and see if there's something partially installed that you may need to remove. Have you rebooted after a failed install?

It might be useful to try to install using the WebMatrix installer. That will install SQL Server for you and may get past this step.

It turns out the registry was corrupted beyond repair from two failed SQL installations (different versions; over a year ago) that I had forgotten about. Removing them was all but impossible. I had to do a clean install of Windows 7. After that, SQL Express installed without a problem.

I'm now having a different issue unrelated to SQL Server that I will describe in another post.

Ouch!