Cannot uninstall Office Home and Student 2007

[Ard]

In March 2008 I purchased a new laptop (Dell XPS 1530) with Windows Vista
Pre-installed. I purchased MS Office Home and Student 2007 separately and
installed it on my new lap top. Initially this was working fine, but this
summer the office products (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) wouldn't start up
anymore. Went online and tried with help of a Dell technician to solve the
problem. He suggested to uninstall MS Office and reinstall. However, so far I
have not been able to do so.

The regular method of uninstall (Control Panel - Programs - Programs and
Features - Uninstall program) doesn't work. The following error message
appears: "Setup error - The language of this installation package is not
supported by your system."

The manual method of uninstall (Windows - Installer) doesn't work either.
The following error message appears: "This patch package could not be opened.
Verify that the 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 also tried the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility, but when I try to run
this, a box appears stating a "Window Script Host - Script:
C:\Users\Ard\AppData\Local\Temp\IXP000.TMP\StartMsi.vbs
Line:17
Char: 1
Error: Permission denied
Code: 800A0046
Source: Microsoft VBScript runtime error

I'm not sure if it has to do with 'Administrator' rights or not. How can I
make sure that my profile has the 'Administrator' rights?

I tried to read similar problems on the discussion group, but haven't been
able to find a solution that works for me. Any advice please? Thanks!

 

[DL]

Why did you not run a repair,of Office, or did you?

 

[ohnonotnow!]

when you say 'manual method' that didn't work, are you referring to this?:

""How to uninstall the 2007 Office system if you cannot uninstall it by
using the "Add or Remove Programs" feature""
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218

//onnn!

 

[Ard]

At first I tried to repair Office, but when this didn't work, I contacted the
Dell helpdesk and the technician gave me the advice to uninstall and
re-install Office. At that moment I didn't realize how difficult it was going
to be to uninstall Office ...

 

[Ard]

Yes, I tried to follow the steps of article 928218. Unfortunately I was not
able to complete all steps. At step 1f (right click the file and then click
Uninstall) it would not work in my case. Also, I tried to delete the folder
Office 12 (as per step 3b) and it would not allow me to do this either.

Any advice on what to do? Thanks!

 

[DL]

You may have to be logged on as the Admninistrator to complete these steps.

FWIW If you initially tried a repair of Office, useing the cd, and that
didnt resolve the issue, that might tend to indicate that something more is
going on, eg your vista installation is corrupted, or your HD has a problem.
Have you used the HD checking utility provided by your HD manufacturer to
run a test on your HD?

 

[Ard]

After this message I decided to contact the Dell Service Centre. Thanks to
their support I was able to uninstall MicroSoft Office and reinstall.

Although it seemed initially that the Dell technician (who took over my
computer) was trying the same things that I already did, it was definitely
more successful than my attempts.

It appeared that I had to run the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility as an
administrater before it would work. Next, the folder with all the Office
files was deleted from the C-drive, followed by a system re-boot. After this,
I could reinstall MS Office using the original CD.

Although I've been very sceptic about the Dell support service in the past,
this time I was very lucky to be assisted by a very professional and
resourceful technican.

Thanks for all the suggestions!