I have the exact same issue, however I never had web client installed before, so it's a "clean install".
I do have the regular vSphere client's installed (4.1, 5.0 and 5.1) and vmware player
Don't really know if you can install vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client on the same system.
What I tried to no avail:
- switch of firewall
- switch of anti virus
- close all browsers
- install directly after booting windows
- running the installer from the dvd directly as admin (not via autoron menu)
- copied the installer to hard disk and ran it as admin
- change installation path to C:\Program Files (x86)\ instead of c:\Program Files\ (since that is where all the other vmware stuff is installed
- any of the above combined
No information about this mysterious error 29700 to be found on the inter-webs
As it stands I can not install vSphere web client on my laptop.
Any idea's would be greatly appreciated
P.S. output log and screenshot attached to post