Can't always run setup.exe !!

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

Here's a weird one. Last week I noticed on boot-up the windows
installer dialog box appeared and wouldn't go away. This caused more
problems, and eventually I had to reload Windows XP.

Now I notice something weird. When I tried to re-load MS Office, the
setup.exe file done nothing when opened. A similar thing happened when
I double-clicked other setup.exe files on my hard disk - yet a FEW of
the files that I had downloaded did run ok.

Any suggestions how to rectify this gratefully accepted!

Thanks,

John