This particular error is prevalent for those who use games that make use of older Visual C packages, among other things. Ofttimes, completely uninstalling these packages and using the Windows Install Clean-Up isn't enough. I've found a page that provided me with a solution that worked. It shows you how to reset permissions to certain registry keys needed by these installation packages. Some of the steps may need to be repeated a few times, especially if one package needs permissions to more than one restricted registry key, but the results are telling.

Okino's "How to change Windows registry permissions"