Virtual Box is a way of running another OS within Ubuntu so the
question is whether the version of Windows you are running inside
Virtual Box is compatible with the program you are wanting to use.

I use WinXP Home and that runs everything I need to but if I needed a
program that only worked in Win7 I'd be out of luck.

Yes, all the programs are XP compatible.
Ive installed XP in VB and while these programs
are old(er) they are new to me.

I installed SP1,2, and 3 and that solved the msi problem.
And kinda helped with the install but it still hung repeatedly.

I installed the app on my laptop - the same install I put on
VB and it installed fine.

I think I might try a different version, a earlier version.

If you are going to try an older version of Virtual Box you'll need to
use Synaptic to remove completely, including all config files, plus
the WinXP virtual machine will need to be done from scratch again. Can
get away with going up a version but not down :-(

WS> I think I might try a different version, a earlier version.

I hate to do it - and yes, its a lot of work but, I need this to work.

Hope it still works afterwards !! Have you tried Googling the program
and error wrt Virtual Box ? Might be fixable without needing to roll
back to an older version, or it may be the program just doesn't like
running on a virtual machine - some don't as they are hard coded to
access the hardware directly.

Its not a vb error - its a Windows error.
This is what gets confusing to me.

VB is installed and working.
XP is installed and working.
XP updates area all installed.
The program works fine on every ACTUAL
XP system I install on but not on the XP on VB.

Something I noticed when trying to install again
is, the cd drive will spin up for a while and then
spin down not coming back up again. I dont know
if its related or not but, it does spin down about the
same point each time on the install process.

Have you tried copying the contents of the CD to a folder in WinXP and
running from there instead ?

Sounds to me like there's a problem with the Windows install package accessing
the hardware. Or, perhaps, there's a hidden dialogue box waiting for a
response. Depending on how VB gives you access to the Windows VM, you may or
may not be seeing the actual 'console' of the Windows VM. If you're not seeing
the console, you may not be seeing all the messages the install routine
generates.

Have you checked to see if the application is supported on virtual machines?