Installation problems.............

Am running Windows XP-home addition. It is up to date
with all the latest updates. I have suddenly lost the
ability to install anything, whether it is via Internet
download/install, cd or diskette, et all. No matter what
I try to install, no matter what the source of the
install, one of three things happens..........
The install reaches the point where it says something
like "Initializing", then it just stops.
The program will start to install, but will stop before
completion of the installation.
Once in awhile the following error message pops
up: "Remote procedure call failed".