Genexi2 - I just found myself in a similar situation with Nero Express. After your edit-odyssey (which was indeed helpful), I found that IsoBuster (from isobuster.com) nicely fixed things for me. With it, I was able to extract the .img file into a normal folder and setup from that off my hard drive. IsoBuster is [a http://isobuster.com/recover.htm?http://isobuster.com/freeshareware.htm]freeware for its basic features[/a] like this.
Paranoid that I am, I did the VB Express install and a little testing while offline to make sure that it doesn't have to "phone home" to work (it wants to, of course, but seems to work OK if it can't). I also ran the clock forward two years after installing to make really sure that it won't stop working after a year. All seems well.
Paranoid that I am, I did the VB Express install and a little testing while offline to make sure that it doesn't have to "phone home" to work (it wants to, of course, but seems to work OK if it can't). I also ran the clock forward two years after installing to make really sure that it won't stop working after a year. All seems well.