iTunes and Windows 7

[DQ]

Why is it that iTunes and Windows 7 just will not cooperate!! I am getting so frustrated with this unhealthy relationship between the two. I searched here and a vast number of other places to find someone who could/would help me resolve the problem I was having. Specifically, after trying to upgrade iTunes to the latest version (2 months ago) I kept getting the message that the Windows installer could not be accessed. So, I could not upgrade. I then could not even uninstall the version of iTunes on my machine.
This went on for weeks. No real help. I finally sent my laptop back to the mftr (two time w/in this period of time). This last time they just replaced the hard drive because they could not get iTunes installed either.
With the new hard drive I was able to install the latest version of iTunes (10.3 I think). This was about two weeks ago. Today I tried to update the software on my iPad 2. After downloading for about 20 minutes and then preparing for install and installation time of another 10 minutes or so I finally get the error message that the update could not be installed!! Why Not??? iTunes is the only program that I have this problem with. Does anyone using Windows 7 NOT have this problem? Does Apple even give a flip? So what is one supposed to do, just ignore the updates?
It should not be this difficult!!!

I use windows 7 64 bit with nary a problem.