InstallShield PAIN!!!

I recently bought Oblivion... and the installer (which, as usual, seems, for no reason whatsoever, to use InstallShield instead of a good old self-extracting archive) refuses to work. When I open the installer, it starts up, then inexplicably launches the installer for the driver from hell (The ATI Catalyst Control Center, that is... which USED TO BE nicely positioned within regular Windows components).
I start that installer and then the installer crashes. Well... it doesn't really crash -- it disappears. The same happens when I hit cancel, but it seems to take a bit of extra persuasion to cancel the thing.
I restart it, and I soon get the error "1607:Unable to install InstallShield Scripting runtime".
A Google search gave me many results.
http://www.google.com/search?hs=ygu&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=%22unable+to+install+installshield+scripting+runtime%22&btnG=Search
[a http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;888019#EDACAAA]According to Microsoft,[/a] "Windows XP is damaged". That's right! Somewhere in this bloody massive operating system, something does not work! The rest of that help file doesn't seem to help me, since it appears to be a different directory structure than me, and there is no chance that file permissions have been messed up.
I am going to assume that it is InstallShield being somehow broken.

Okay, so that's all fine and dandy. I'll just reinstall InstallShield and see if it works!
Look at this:
http://www.macrovision.com/downloads/search/index.jsp?pm=ISW
The thing takes up 256 MB?!!
It doesn't have pictures... it should just be straight compiled code taking up maybe 15 MB, shouldn't it?
Oh yes, and the download failed about 75 MB in.


My only recent installation is the Orbiter space sim, which is a self-extracting archive, thus should not be causing problems.


Alright... so has anyone else encountered this problem and solved it?

Yes, I have installed stuff that uses InstallShield before.
Oblivion seems to use Version 11, so I'll see if I can dig up something with that same version and see if it works.
(Why does the thing need all these versions, anyway? I haven't noticed a single difference ever).

Here's something to try...there should be a hidden folder under Program Files labelled "InstallShield Installation Information", if you can figure out which folder has the Oblivion files stored in (usually by checking the ini file within, or the .exe if there's one there), delete the folder, then try to install it again from the DVD.

I can't find a folder for Oblivion in there. I did notice a few leftover processes from InstallSheild, though. Killing them didn't change anything, and neither does restarting the computer.
I'll see if I can find the GUID for Oblivion -- maybe it somehow ended up with the same one as Catalyst?

Hopefully not, though, because that would mean the demise of yet another thing that should not be broken, spilling us into another thing similar to "dll hell", all brought on by the worst driver ever devised by man.


Edit:
Removing Catalyst's directory in "Installsheild Installation Information" didn't change anything. That's probably almost a good thing.

Edit again:
GUID is 35CB6715-41F8-4F99-8881-6FC75BF054B0. Oblivion definietly doesn't have a directory yet... which tells me that something is really bugared.


Yet another edit:
I just had a sudden realization:
It never mentions Oblivion in the installer. When I open it, it says that it is preparing the ATI Catalyst Control Center installer.
So, I updated ATI Catalyst Control Center and tried an InstallShield updater that I found, but it still messes up. It seems to actually install the stupid control center program now, but then freezes when I hit finish. Actually, it doesn't really freeze, since I can end it easily with the task manager, but it doesn't close when I press Finish and I get the hourglass pointer for eternity. Upon killing that installer, it continues to try to install the Catalyst Control Center... so it's definietly not a friendly driver updater.
I haven't encountered the 1607 error since running the updater.

I just had a fond memory of the good old days of downgraded DirectX installations... Who would have thought installers could be this much trouble?
I bet this game doesn't even write registry keys beyond a "here I am" type thing.



Final Edit:
Oho! Anyone else who has this problem, try my above attempts at a solution, then boot setup.exe directly from the DVD. Do not run the startup exe.
No, I did not overlook this originally -- it only started working when I do that after the above fiddling. I wouldn't be surprised if this was because of Catalyst Control Center writing itself onto my PATH variable.
I hate installers.

Yeah twice (once was with Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2, the other was Vampire: Bloodlines. I 'fixed' it by reinstalling Windows XP. Not a huge loss as I only use it for games anyway.

I think after X ammount of time, Install Shield just screws itself up.

my buddy was having the install die on him right before it finished... And blue-screening windows xp pro as well. The third time he tried it it installed.

I was thinking of getting the PC version as opposed to the Xbox 360 version (purely for reasons of saving £15). this has swung me back to getting the 360 version.