I was installing SharePoint 2010 for the first time and under the install menu I ran Install software prerequisites which ran through without an issue.

After completing the prerequisites install I ran Install SharePoint Server and was faced with this lovely error message:

Now you would have thought running the Install software prerequisites would have actually installed all the necessary software, but no.

Here is a list of the other software and there links that you need to download and manually install before being able to continue:

Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation
Microsoft Sync Framework v1.0
Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs
ASP.NET and Windows Forms Chart Controls for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

After I install those 4 missing components the install ran through without an issue.