Install Visual Studio / .Net Framework (ERROR: 0x80070643)

tl;dr solution is at the bottom of the post

One of the classes I'm currently taking is Assembly, and since we are using IA-32, the professor requires Microsoft Visual Studio C++ Express Edition 2010. I installed it in my dual boot of W7, but I got frustrated having to switch to Windows, especially when another class of mine requires the GCC compiler, so I decided to try to install it on my VirtualBox Windows XP that I use for Netflix inside my Linux Mint.

I really wanted to just make the Visual Studio folder a Virtualbox Shared Folder and run off that, but Microsoft products hate trying to be run without first being installed, so it threw up several random errors. Then I tried to download and install legitimately, only to find that it returned another error "Setup could not install the following component: .NET Framework 4". Well what the hell. It doesn't really give me any explanation as to why it failed, only that it did. I know it probably created a log SOMEwhere, but I really didn't want to have to search around and figure out where.

Then I try to install the .NET 4 on its own, and it fails yet again with a "Fatal Error", only this time it gives me a link to a log, placed in a temp folder somewhere, where it had the error code: 0x80070643. This was a pretty ambiguous error code (as most of MS's codes are), in that Microsoft said that I probably had something wrong with the MSI service.

After verifying all of that, I saw that the log linked to yet another log (a log within a log, nice Microsoft) filled with a crap ton of stuff, and sifting through that, I finally found the golden ticket:

Product: Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client Profile -- You must install the 32-bit Windows Imaging Component (WIC) before you run Setup. Please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162643&clcid=0x409 to install WIC, and then rerun Setup.

I don't understand how an Imaging Component has to do with a Framework, or why they couldn't just SAY that it was a prerequisite beforehand, but after downloading and installing the WIC, the .NET framework installed perfectly, and then Visual Studio installed as well.

tl;dr: If you are a googler ducker who came here, looking for why you can't install Visual Studio and/or the .NET framework, try installing the Windows Imaging Component first.

-Bry

PS - After installing Visual Studio, it presented me with a dialog about needing to restart my computer, only the "Restart Later" box was greyed out. What the fuck, Microsoft.