8007007e error on logon

Hi,
I cannot find an answer to a friend's messenger problem.
He is running XP on a laptop, all in French, and today when I called in to
see him he had the following problems, possibly linked:
1) 8007007e error trying to log on to live messenger v: 14.0.8117.0416
(latest)
2) running IE7 he was unable to highlight text for cut/paste and unable to
enter search strings etc.
3) unable to enter text in new email with outlook express.

I installed IE8 and it cured problems 2 and 3.

Checked MS Live logon still working OK and tried a couple of solutuions I
found but still the same error on Messenger.

I then tried to re install messenger via the Live Installer. This was
looking good but when it reached 100% it suddenley de installed eveything.

Any ideas please?
cheers,
David