Yes I'm having the same problem.
I tried removing all the .htaccess.....with this it get me further thru the installation but still failed at some point.
the logfile shows this :
/js/.htaccess: RewriteEngine not allowed here, referer: http://localhost/xampp/xxxx/install/index.php
/.htaccess: SetEnv not allowed here, referer: http://localhost/xampp/xxxx/install/index.php