MS Office 2000 Premimum Installation

[vickianng]

Hello to You!

Over the years I have had several occasions whereby it became necessary to reinstall Office 2000 Premimum on my Pentium 3 computer which is running Windows 98 SE. The original copy of the CD has long been scratched and is unuseable however I have been making copies of it as needed to ensure I always have a copy if needed. Well currently when I tried to reinstall office, I select setup.exe, I get the following message:

Windows Installer

This patch package could not be opened. Verify that this patch package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows installer patch package.

I have tried reinstalling the "installer" which is included on the CD, and it installs properly, but continue to get the above message.

Thinking that my disk was somehow corrupted, I attempted to use a friend's copy, but I still receive this message, despite the fact that these install disks work fine on other PC's.

I am unemployed presently, and I desperately need Word to print up my resumes. Can you help?

Thanks so much in advance. Vicki Gonzales

[Murf]

Ifn you have reinstalled several times without uninstalling then it's probably corrupted.

You will need to clean up installer. There is a utility to do so HERE (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q238/4/13.ASP&NoWebContent=1)

Follow the instructions to clean up Installer, then try the reinstall.

It might be a good idea to copy Office to your hard drive in a folder and try installing from the hard drive instead of the cd.

[vickianng]

Ifn you have reinstalled several times without uninstalling then it's probably corrupted.

You will need to clean up installer. There is a utility to do so HERE (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q238/4/13.ASP&NoWebContent=1)

Follow the instructions to clean up Installer, then try the reinstall.

It might be a good idea to copy Office to your hard drive in a folder and try installing from the hard drive instead of the cd.


Dear Murph,

Thanks so much for getting back with me.

Unfortunately, the "fix" you referred me to is only applicable to system's that are equipped with an Installer version which is earlier than the one on my system, which is 2.0***. I went ahead and downloaded it anyway, and installed it, and only one program came up as using the Installer, and since it wasn't Office, I did not run or execute the program.

Also, I failed to mention earlier that I went through my system, and attempted to remove all instances of Office 2000 and related files. I don't know how good of a job I did with that, but I tried.

Please, do you have something else up your sleeve to help me?

Thanks again--Vicki

[Murf]

Try this:

On the Windows taskbar, click Start, and then click Run.

Type msconfig in the Open box and then click OK.

Click Selective startup on the General tab of the System Configuration Utility dialog box. Clear the following check boxes under Selective Startup:


Process Config.sys file
Process Autoexec.bat file
Process Winstart.bat file
Process System.ini file
Process Win.ini file
Load startup group items


NOTE: One or more of these check boxes may not be available, depending on the files present on your computer.


Click OK.


Click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer.

Now try installing.

Or using Explore (right click START then Explore).

Make a folder on your C: drive (call it anything).

Go to the CD with the Office program in it and SELECT ALL, then COPY, then paste it into the folder you made on the C: drive.

Now try double clicking on SETUP from the folder you copied the cd to.

[vickianng]

Murph--

Well neither of these suggestions you made had any effect on the installation of Office, unfortuantely...I continue to receive the same message as when I whe I try to execute the Office install normally. Also I tried from the ?Add/remove programs menu in Control Panel, and also from the start button,

I even copied each directory/file manually, so I could ensure the integrity of the CD, and although they seemed to copy to the hard drive OK, again the setup program refused to run even from there. The same error message popped up! This is so frustrating!

I apologize for taking up so much of your time, however I am truly in desperation mode, and would appreciate further consideration as to this problem. Any further ideas or suggestions? I intend to keep trying at least as long as you do. Thanks again.

[Murf]

Try reinstalling Windows Installer. You can get it HERE (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=CEBBACD8-C094-4255-B702-DE3BB768148F)

Let us know

[vickianng]

Sorry, Murph, I thought I mentioned that reinstalling the "installer" was one of the first things I did in an attempt to correct this.

Just in case of a miracle, I followed your instructions and again, reinstalled the "installer". No luck, yet. I still recieve the same message about being unable to opem the patch. Now what?

Vicki

[AnnMarie]

I am unemployed presently, and I desperately need Word to print up my resumes. Can you help?

Hi Vicki - while this is not the ultimate solution and while you are waiting for another idea (sorry but I dont have any), you can download and install a free Office Suite that is compatible with MS Office from here (http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/).

[GretaP]

You could try this if you haven't done so already, Vicki:

Open the registry editor (Start>Run key in regedit and click on OK)
Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Microsoft>Installer>Products
Expand the Products key, and look for the GUID
904000001E872D116BF00006799C897E

Click on it to highlight, then export the key (as a backup) by clicking on Export Registry File under the Registry menu item
name it something meaningful (Office Patches, for example) and save it to Desktop or somewhere that you'll remember.
Now, with it still selected, click on Delete under the Edit menu item, or right-click and choose Delete. Say Yes when it asks for confirmation of deletion. Exit the registry editor by clicking on Exit under the Registry menu item.
Restart and see if you can now install Office 2000.

[Murf]

Thx GretaP and AM, running out of idea's hope one of yours works.

[vickianng]

Hi Vicki - while this is not the ultimate solution and while you are waiting for another idea (sorry but I dont have any), you can download and install a free Office Suite that is compatible with MS Office from here (http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/).

Hi AnnMarie--

Thanks for that suggestion. I'll keep it in mind. :) Vicki

[vickianng]

You could try this if you haven't done so already, Vicki:

Open the registry editor (Start>Run key in regedit and click on OK)
Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Microsoft>Installer>Products
Expand the Products key, and look for the GUID
904000001E872D116BF00006799C897E

Click on it to highlight, then export the key (as a backup) by clicking on Export Registry File under the Registry menu item
name it something meaningful (Office Patches, for example) and save it to Desktop or somewhere that you'll remember.
Now, with it still selected, click on Delete under the Edit menu item, or right-click and choose Delete. Say Yes when it asks for confirmation of deletion. Exit the registry editor by clicking on Exit under the Registry menu item.
Restart and see if you can now install Office 2000.



Murph--Thanks again for all your time and helpful suggestions! I sure appreciate your assistance.

Greta P--Bingo! That was the fix. I thank you as well! There is no way I would have ever figured that out. You guys are wonderful! Fond regards and thanks to all!

Vickianng

[AnnMarie]

You are very welcome Vicki, you never know when you might need a backup. WTG Greta!!! :D

[GretaP]

You're very welcome, Vicki, I'm glad that registry edit helped solve the problem :D

[Murf]

GretaP

Thanks, been wrestling with a similiar situation on another PC I'm building. Before I read your solution I found another similiar way to do it:

From what I understand Each Office Suite and stand-alone program has a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). There are two forms of GUIDs: uncompressed (or standard) and compressed. Compressed GUIDs are stored in the registry. You can use the uncompressed GUID to identify the suite or program to be removed when you are running the Windows Installer program.

Another way (which worked for me) was to run the command in this case:

msiexec.exe /x {00000409-78E1-11D2-B60F-006097C998E7} /qn

It removed Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition without any further user interaction:

End result was the same as your solution.

Geez, if you would of posted earlier would of saved me a bunch of work. Thanks again, Booked mark this one for the future...

[GretaP]

Sorry, Murf, I was at work when you were busy troubleshooting this problem (little to no internet access there) and didn't see it until shortly after I got home from work.