Install error. "Windows Installer cannot update... protected files

I’m having a HP laptop running with XP SP3 and Office 2007 Home and Student. Due to some problem with my laptop I required to reformat it but my Office was working fine. I formatted the system, re-installed everything but now while installing Office 2007 again, installation fails with and error saying

“Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 encountered an error during setup. The Windows Installer service cannot update one or more protected Windows files.”

The error occurs after entering the product and at the stage of about 20% of the progress bar. Can someone help me out with this ?

http://forums.techarena.in/office-se...tm#post4150186

read through this post, i just did it and it worked for me and as you'll see, for many other people

Thank your very much. This indeed helped a lot !

Its really a shame of microsoft.
but thanks to u.
The solution worked for me.