Oracle Database on Windows (including Express Edition) has a bug in which it cannot be installed on a machine with a hostname (machine name) that is greater than 16 characters.
During install you will receive an error telling you to examine a log (usually in ..\cfgtoollogs\dbca\XE\trace.log<timestamp>.)
Inside the log file you will see:
DIM-00019: create service error
O/S-Error: (OS 1053) The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.
To check your machine's hostname, open a command prompt and type "hostname", or "systeminfo".
To workaround this issue, clean up any previous install attempt, change your machine's hostname (machine name) to a hostname which is 16 characters or less. Then reboot and reinstall XE..
Bug number: 34273456