Quietly we read <oK2Ve.8431$ib1.3996@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com>, unable to contain our credulity we realized that Eric <nospam@nospam.nospam.not> said this:

MSI.DLL is part of the Microsoft Software Installer.  I've had it become
corrupted (Win98) in the past also, as a result of version mismatches for
it's files.  Search Microsoft's Knowledge Base, they have a step-by-step
process to rebuild it.  IIRC, it required a little more than just installing
the most current MSI package (which can be downloaded from MS's website).  I
seem to recall having to manually delete some registry stuff, reboot (into
DOS) and delete some system files, and then be able to install.   Took less
than 10 mins and everything worked fine afterwards.

Cheers
Eric

Many thanks ... I have it working now.