Hi, Bob.
Bummer!
Do you have a genuine Quicken CD-ROM, or was Q pre-installed on that laptop (so that you have no media)?
If you have the CD, you should be able to use Vista to UNinstall Quicken (Start | Control Panel | Programs and Features). Then you can delete the qw.exe file, if that is not handled automatically. After that, you should be able to reinstall Quicken from the CD. The version on the CD will be the original, of course, and your first One Step Update should bring it up to Release 4, or whatever is current for the 2007 version.
I know that's a lot of "shoulda's" that you might have tried already. But I can't see your computer and watch your steps, so I can only imagine and guess at where it might be going wrong. Can you tell us, step by step, HOW you are trying to install, and quote those error messages verbatim? By now you probably are quite familiar with Vista's security features, including its reluctance sometimes to let anyone but an Administrator install a new application. If that's the kind of roadblock you are hitting, let us know and we should be able to guide you around it.
Your data should be safe and survive all these attempts to reinstall the application, but you should have at least one up-to-the-minute backup stored safely, of course.
RC