OK, managed to find this;

http://support.microsoft.com/default...16&Product=mny

from a Google groups search, and so far it seams to have solved my issue.
Why a search the MS knowledge base (tried every way I could think of) didn't
return that document, I'll never know.

Mark

"Mark R Penn" <mberryspamless[at]coolcomsspambegone.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ua4ZG5fJEHA.1392[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

I have Money 2002 installed, and have had for some time. About two weeks
ago, I started getting the Windows Installer "preparing to install" message
repeatedly when I open Money, or when the Money Viewer is invoked in IE.
Both Money and the viewer work fine, but no matter if I cancel or ignore the
message, it keeps coming up roughly once every two seconds.

The real issue though is this: since this started happening, I've been
unable to install or uninstall anything else that uses the Windows installer
(including trying to uninstall Money to solve the issue), as it fails saying
that another installation is in progress. This happens even on a clean boot
without starting Money. I've stopped the installer process whenever I find
it in the running processes list, but that does not help.

A repair install of Money does run, but doesn't solve the issue.

Please help - I'm tearing my hair out trying to solve this issue.