Installing .NET on WFLP (Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's)

I was using a WFLP VM for my day-to-day admin stuff, as it was lighter-weight. However, vSphere Virtual Infrastructure Client 4.x uses .NET 3, which wouldn't install,  so 

Installing .NET gave a generic "error 1603", which just means "Failed Installation". (Windows Update error was 0x643)

Delving into the .net install/error logs,

%temp%\dd_dotnetfx35error.txt:


[03/19/12,16:41:09] WIC Installer: [2] Error code 1603 for this component means "Fatal error during installation.
"
[03/19/12,16:41:10] WIC Installer: [2] Setup Failed on component WIC Installer

%temp%\dd_dotnetfx35install.txt:

[03/19/12,16:41:07] UTILS::RunNGENAction: Started

[03/19/12,16:41:07] UTILS::RunNGENAction: Unable to find mscoree.dll

[03/19/12,16:41:07] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty - Property: {092114C2-997D-4D68-8F3A-8BC2584FD23B} - PropertyName: Quiet Mode Setup - Value: 1

[03/19/12,16:41:07] WIC Installer: ISetupManager::GetGlobalCustomProperty() failed to find global prop in CBaseComponent::GetGlobalCustomProperty()

[03/19/12,16:41:07] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty - Property: {BBE1827C-F2FD-4FDA-A6D6-C83B62FFFDCA} - PropertyName: compfailed - Value: 0

[03/19/12,16:41:07] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty - Property: {8297A38B-6431-4F1D-9F6E-C3D371CEA383} - PropertyName: WebSetup - Value: 1

[03/19/12,16:41:07] WIC Installer: GenericComponent Action: CreateProcess launched with cmd line : e:\4ead3337240831714fa0329a6cdf8a\dotnetfx30\WIC_X86_ENU.exe /quiet /norestart /log:"%TEMP%\dd_WIC.txt"

[03/19/12,16:41:07] BWaitForMSI(): Verifying we're the only installation currently in progress.

[03/19/12,16:41:07] BWaitForMSI(): Ready to proceed with installation.  Continuing...

[03/19/12,16:41:09] WIC Installer: e:\4ead3337240831714fa0329a6cdf8a\dotnetfx30\WIC_X86_ENU.exe exited with return value 1603

[03/19/12,16:41:09] InstallReturnValue: GFN_MID WIC Installer, 0x643

[03/19/12,16:41:09] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty

[03/19/12,16:41:09] WIC Installer: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Error code 1603 for this component means "Fatal error during installation.

"

[03/19/12,16:41:10] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty

[03/19/12,16:41:10] WIC Installer: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Setup Failed on component WIC Installer

 pointed to "missing" DLL's:

windowscodecs.dll

windowscodecsext.dll

I tried installing "Windows Imaging Components" but it said a newer version was already installed:

%temp%\dd_WIC.txt:

0.230: 2012/03/19 16:41:09.603 (local)

0.230: e:\8536f54655b5da03535394513236\update\update.exe (version 6.3.4.0)

0.230: Failed To Enable SE_SHUTDOWN_PRIVILEGE

0.230: Hotfix started with following command line: /quiet /norestart /log:C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\dd_WIC.txt 

0.260: In Function GetBuildType, line 1170, RegOpenKeyEx failed with error 0x2

0.260:  C:\Windows\system32\WindowsCodecs.dll is Not Present

0.260: First Condition in Test.WindowsCodecsVer.Section Succeeded

0.260: Condition succeeded for section Test.WindowsCodecsVer.Section in Line 1 of PreRequisite 

0.260:  C:\Windows\system32\WindowsCodecsExt.dll is Not Present

0.260: First Condition in Test.WindowsCodecsExtVer.Section Succeeded

0.260: Condition succeeded for section Test.WindowsCodecsExtVer.Section in Line 2 of PreRequisite 

0.270:  C:\Windows\system32\WMPhoto.dll is Present

0.270: FileVersion of C:\Windows\system32\WMPhoto.dll is Greater Than 6.0.5840.16388

0.270: Condition Check for Line 3 of PreRequisite returned FALSE 

0.310: WIC Setup encountered an error:  Newer version of update is already on the system.

0.330: Newer version of update is already on the system.

0.330: Update.exe extended error code = 0xf0f4

0.330: Update.exe return code was masked to 0x643 for MSI custom action compliance.

So had to extract the DLL's  from the WIC installer and manually overwrite the newer ones in windows\system32. (In retrospect I should have backed up the new .DLL's and tried replacing them after the fact.)

Success! After that, all .NET installs worked, and I was able to install VIClient! (I started with .NET 3.0, but 3.5 includes 2 and 3). This also allowed the installation of PowerShell 2 goodness.

DLL's were ver. 6.0.6001.17009, FWIW.