2003 update: what worked for me

[Marianne]

First--Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions and pointers, and to
those who added and updated the recent KBs!

After attempting many suggested fixes, I resorted to ... full system
recovery.

....And it worked!!!! <phew> Office 2003 installed and *updated* successfully.

FYI, I'd been getting Error 1402: Setup could not open registry key.
Uninstall/reinstall/deleting & fixing registry errors, etc etc. didn't work.

Best of luck,
Marianne

 

[Suzanne]

Hi Marianne:

Read your resolution with interest. How did you go about
doing a full system recovery. I've tried a system
restore, but it doesn't go far enough back to take care
of my Office install/update problem. Did you try
something else?

Many thanks.

Suzanne

 

[Marianne]

Hi Suzanne,

I did a full system recovery. I hope you don't have to
resort to this...

My Windows XP (Home) was pre-installed (I have a
ThinkPad), so I didn't have the CDs. I tried just to
recover XP from the hard drive (in c:\i386 on the
ThinkPad) by running setup.exe, but got error messages;
some needed files/settings were missing. (this option
might have left some programs intact.) Your PC's help
file, or the manufacturer's website, should have info and
tips on recovering your system.

To perform a full recovery on a ThinkPad, press and
hold 'F11' as the system is booting up, while messages
appear on the screen (something like "Press F11 to
recover..." and Press F? to [edit settings?]). These
appear before the Windows logo screen. If you're not
familiar with this, shut down your PC and watch the
screen when it reboots.

I had two options: 1) Full recovery or 2) Exit. If you
have a partial recovery option, try that first. It's a
pain to reload everything. %-)

I hope this helps. Best of luck!

Marianne