CS3 InDesign & Illustrator Install Exit Code 7; Other CS3 Apps Install Fine

Question

I feel like I'm beating a dead horse... (no offence to horse lovers out there - it's just an expression)
I'm having trouble performing an silent install of the CS3 suite from a network share on Windows 7.  I've read through a number of posts on here, one of which was a 3 page post on this issue where Mac & Win 7 users alike posted failures, successes and how they got there, and another about removing the OS check feature from the application.proxy.xml file (which didn't work for me; unless I did something wrong...?)  Unfortunately for me after trying much of what was suggested, I'm still facing a brick wall.
All these machines are Core 2 Duo's clocked at no less than 2.2GHz, have 4GB of RAM, have over 100GB of free disk space and are running fully updated/patched installations of Windows 7 32-bit (x86) with Office 2007 Enterprise.
When I try to install the suite silently it fails with 'Exit Code: 7', which according to the CS3_Deployment.pdf means "Unable to complete the silent workflow."  If I take out the "--mode=silent" switch, the GUI launches and installs fine.  I took a look at the compressed log file & searched for "Return value 3", "ERROR" and "FATAL" for clues, but its vague and nondescript.  I didn't copy/paste the entire log in this post for brevity's sake, but you can check it out here:
Condensed Version: http://pastebin.com/eFKpe9wK
Unabridged Version: http://pastebin.com/MQDeQZmF
Instead, however, I do want to touch on just a few things from the log:
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  INFO
BEGIN Setting requested payload actions
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010 DEBUG
Setting action for {AC76BA86-1033-0000-7760-000000000003} Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional (At install, older versions get upgraded) per deployment file.
Setting action for {7BB7F66A-D798-45A3-A383-0727FB1EBF8E} Adobe Flash Video Encoder per deployment file.
Setting action for {abd781e6-d5ca-45aa-a5f7-f64799eb1c04} Adobe Version Cue CS3 Server per deployment file.
Setting action for {00E5C764-9525-44C3-8404-712AD06AE12A} Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 per deployment file.
Setting action for {3BC8460B-085E-47F3-9C62-8FFCBAF11D78} Adobe Flash CS3 per deployment file.
Setting action for {C4519961-AC64-4565-B3AF-9050296B5D5A} Adobe Illustrator CS3 per deployment file.
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  INFO
Selection of payload {C4519961-AC64-4565-B3AF-9050296B5D5A} Adobe Illustrator CS3 is forbidden by the policy.
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  WARN
Error setting action for {C4519961-AC64-4565-B3AF-9050296B5D5A} Adobe Illustrator CS3:
Localization: missing stringID "locPayloadSelectSystemRequirement" for en_US in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\498b43b77cac072081a5692bfc52804\resources\main.xml
system check
The minimum system requirements listed below are needed in order to run Adobe Illustrator CS3 and are not met.
- Windows XP Service Pack 2 and greater
- Windows Vista
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010 DEBUG
Setting action for {24D77A7C-E10B-4057-9974-FAB8BFDAC853} Adobe InDesign CS3 per deployment file.
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  INFO
Selection of payload {24D77A7C-E10B-4057-9974-FAB8BFDAC853} Adobe InDesign CS3 is forbidden by the policy.
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  WARN
Error setting action for {24D77A7C-E10B-4057-9974-FAB8BFDAC853} Adobe InDesign CS3:
Localization: missing stringID "locPayloadSelectSystemRequirement" for en_US in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\498b43b77cac072081a5692bfc52804\resources\main.xml
system check
The minimum system requirements listed below are needed in order to run Adobe InDesign CS3 and are not met.
- Windows XP Service Pack 2 and greater
- Windows Vista
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010 DEBUG
Setting action for {30C4B843-28DA-466F-AFCA-CB0ED153C826} Adobe Photoshop CS3 per deployment file.
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  INFO
Selection of payload {30C4B843-28DA-466F-AFCA-CB0ED153C826} Adobe Photoshop CS3 is forbidden by the policy.
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  WARN
Error setting action for {30C4B843-28DA-466F-AFCA-CB0ED153C826} Adobe Photoshop CS3:
Localization: missing stringID "locPayloadSelectSystemRequirement" for en_US in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\498b43b77cac072081a5692bfc52804\resources\main.xml
system check
The minimum system requirements listed below are needed in order to run Adobe Photoshop CS3 and are not met.
- Windows XP Service Pack 2 and greater
- Windows Vista
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010 DEBUG
Setting action for {7005ECBC-F54B-42FD-81E4-934BC43FA329} Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium per deployment file.
PayloadPolicyNode.SetAction: IY->IY for {7005ECBC-F54B-42FD-81E4-934BC43FA329} Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  INFO
END Setting requested payload actions
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:13 2010  WARN
Some payload actions specified in the deployment file could not be applied.
...snip - snip...
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:17 2010  INFO
Checking bootstrapper progress
Ran uninstall for the bootstrapper due to an exception
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:17 2010 FATAL
Exception: Payload actions could not be set. Search the log for "BEGIN Setting requested payload actions" for details.
Exit code: 7
[    9660] Thu Dec 02 07:08:17 2010  INFO
I've got some initial questions that pertain to what's in the log file:
The areas in bold:  Since the same install also fails on Windows XP machines, what does this mean exactly?
The areas in italics: Can anyone expand on what that means?
The underlined areas: What 'Policy' is this referring to: Setup's own internal policy (like the OS check) or something else?
Here's what I've done so far:
Went through the 'Run a silent installation of Adobe Creative Suite 3' document
Went through the 'Troubleshoot installation with install logs | CS3, CS4' document
Used the Adobe Support Advisor to go through the logs, but it always says that no problems are found.
Recreated the install & uninstall XML files, twice, via the "setup.exe --record=1" method for each application & the entire suiteNot that I think this is important, but I was never prompted to enter a serial number when creating the .XML files.
Renamed the XML files for each application (e.g.: Photoshop-install.xml; CS3Suite-install.xml; Flash-remove.xml etc.)
Copied the XML files to a common folder on a network share (e.g.: \\path\to\Adobe\Design Premium CS3\Adobe CS3\XMLs)
Created install batch files for each application, including the suite, that install via the following command"\\path\to\Adobe\Design Premium CS3\Adobe CS3\Setup.exe" --mode=silent --deploymentFile="\\path\to\Adobe\Design Premium CS3\Adobe CS3\XMLs\Photoship-install.xml"
Tried the installs with & without the "--skipProcessCheck=1" switch but there's no change.
No applications are running during the installs.
Verified my application.xml.override file was in \\path\to\Adobe\Design Premium CS3\Adobe CS3\payloads\AdobeDesignSuitePremiumen_US_Volume
Verified I didn't have any strange characters in my application.xml.override fileI deleted and manually retyped all double quotes just to be sure.
I noticed that the "installSourcePath" property in the install.xml files created point to a local location rather than, what I would expect to be, the installation source folder where I copied the contents of the DVD to.  On a whim I changed it to point to the copied DVD files but that didn't seem to help either so I changed it back.
FROM: <Property name="installSourcePath">C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\498b43b77cac072081a5692bfc52804</Property>
TO: <Property name="installSourcePath">\\path\to\Adobe\Design Premium CS3\Adobe CS3</Property>
Aside from Acrobat Reader 9.4.0, Adobe Flash Player 10 (ActiveX & Plugin) and maybe Shockwave 11, these machines never previously had any other Adobe products installed.
For what its worth, uninstalling Acrobat Reader 9.4.0 doesn't seem to help either.  I didn't try removing Flash Player or Shockwave [yet].
Using the install XML files I created via "setup.exe --record=1", when I run installs for the individual applications silently [via batch files] one at a time, all applications install fine except for Illustrator and InDesign: Exit Code 7.
This may further help suggest my application.xml.override file is fine.
Even more interesting is that I get the same error on Windows XP and Windows 7 machines alike.  (See the image below taken from an XP machine; the same happens on Windows 7 machines so it doesn't appear this problem is OS specific.)
Other than removing Flash Player, Shockwave and ripping out our Anti-Virus solution (Sophos), which is going to be difficult, is there anything I've missed?
Anyone have suggestions on why Illustrator and InDesign don't install?

Answer 1

I spoke with Adobe Support today and was directed to this support article:
CPSID_84332 - http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/843/cpsid_84332.html
Although this article speaks to CS5 installations, even though I thought I made it clear that I was working with CS3, I decided to give it a shot anyway.
The first comment passively suggests troubleshooting [all] "install errors using Creative Suite 5 install logs", which links you to CPSID_84451 - http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/844/cpsid_84451.html.  But again, its CS3 I'm having trouble with and I've already linked, what I believe to be, a more appropriate CS3 [and CS4] log troubleshooting document in my first post.
Step 1 requires restarting "your computer in a minimized state before running the installer." - This isn't at all optional nor ideal when we're talking about silent installations, especially when they can take place in the middle of the day - its highly distruptive, or deployments in general.  Plus, I'm not interested in developing a package that will perform the steps outlined and then undo everything.  Its important to note that this isn't a one-off problem: every machine that needs to have CS3 installed experiences this problem.  But for what its worth:
I did as instructed in the troubleshooting documentation but it didn't work.
No other applications fail to install, and all but these lone Adobe CS3 apps install fine; what gives?
Step 2 is to perform a repair installation of the Windows Installer.  (FYI: Windows 7 ships with 5.0, my version is 5.0.7600.16385, and for the record there doesn't seem to be a redistributable download available at this time.)  I can't use this as part of my silent installation package because it calls you to run `sfc /scannow` which is time consuming and, if something is found, often requires a reboot.  Fortunately for me, "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."
Step 3 is to preinstall Adobe Air and the AdobeHelp payloads:
AIR isn't part of the CS3 DVD, it has to be downloaded & installed silently (via -silent -eulaAccepted if you don't have the redistributable package); this was done but didn't help.
There isn't an 'AdobeHelp' payload, only 'AdobeHelpViewerAll', which will not allow a manual instalation so I can't do that.
In summary, these tips unfortunately did not solve the problem.