Windows 7: Cannot find installed Netgear WG111 driver in Win7

I already searched the forums and the few threads I found on this did not help.

I just installed Win 7 on a XP PC. I got the Win 7 compatible drivers for my wireless netgear adapter (WG111) and installed them but my hardware cannot find the driver. I troubleshoot the hardware, pointed to the installed driver site (C/programs/netgear/wg111) but it still says it cannot find the driver.

I tried several times installing and uninstalling and reinstalling several drivers I found from the links in the other threads including netgear website (wg111v2_3_4_0) but nothing works. The setup file executes and after several steps (including one that says configuring windows C++ visual basic redistributible), the software is installed and the netgear wireless utility icon appears on the desktop. When i plugin the USB adapter (wg111) when directed and click OK, the window closes and nothing happens.
When I check, no drivers loaded or installed.

Help appreciated