The solution is simple,
1) find the installer at D:\mathcad\MathCad15WixInstaller.msi
2) right click on this file and click Install, It will take a while but will install eventually.
I am a Windows software developer with many years of experience. PTC should be ashamed of this install experience.
It looks like the setup launcher has issues with WIndows 8.
I ran the installer, it failed.
I ran it again with XP SP3 compatibility, it failed.
I went to the PTC support page and found out I need to register to see the support pages.
I registered,
I searched on Windows 8 Matchcad, several listings appeared. I clciked on a couple, site told me I can't see them for some reason.
Then I googled the problem and found this listing. The most misleading collection of meaningless statements I have read in a while.
PTC support is supposed to clean this kind of garbage up and turn it into something usefull.
How are college students who are not IT trained supposed to figure this kind of thing out ? If this steaming pile of software was not required by a university, no one would purchase it.
When you pay $$$ for software, the install experience should be straight-forward. A posting of compatibility issues and work-arounds should be available.