Install the Office Update Installation Engine

[Barry Newland]

Good Afternoon,

I was trying to perform a MS Office update search when
I receive the below error message. I am the adminstrator
of my own computer and I have a cable modem for internet
support.

I cannot figure out how to get past this error message.

Thank you for your time
================
Install the Office Update Installation Engine Help

The Office Update site is unable to check for updates on
this computer. This may be happening because of one of
the following reasons:

You do not have administrative privileges for this
computer.
There is a network problem and the detection catalog used
by the Office Update site failed to download. Go back to
the Downloads home page and try running detection again.
Windows Installer patch files (.MSP files) from
previously applied Office updates are missing from the
\Windows\Installer hidden directory on your computer. MSP
files are stored on your computer after update
installation completes because they need to be referenced
for future update operations. If the files are missing
you will not be able to apply Office updates. You may
also be unable to uninstall Office products as a result
of the same problem. Please contact Microsoft Product
Support Services for assistance.
You installed Office updates in the past and then
upgraded from Windows Installer version 1.0 to Windows
Installer version 1.1. For more information see the KB
article Windows Installer May Prompt for Install Source
if Unavailable.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290301 "Description of the
Windows Installer CleanUp Utility".

 

[Barry Newland]

Hello again,

After reading through all the postings, it appears that
this problem is wide spread. I see references to it
everywhere but I see no solutions.

I have looked all over and cannot find anything. I
mayhave to call Microsoft and pay the $35.00 for them to
tell me that I need to uninstall and re-install my MS
Office XP.

This is not an option I want to do. My Outlook is set
up with many users within my household and is taliored to
everyone use. I would really hate to have to re-
configure everyone from scratch.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Debbie Perkins]

Don't bother uninstalling Office XP and reinstalling. I
did that and still get the same error you're getting.
The only thing I can figure in my case is my PC crashed a
while back (it's always doing that because it's a Compaq)
and I had to reinstall a lot of stuff.

 

[Debbie Perkins]

I figured out my problem. I found some posting about a problem running
Office update if you had a separate Office program like Access or Frontpage
loaded. I used Windows installer cleanup to remove Frontpage 2003 (an
upgrade) and Frontpage 2002 installation files, then ran Office update
successfully. I then had to reinstall FP 2002 and then FP 2003. Now Office
update runs O.K. So I guess it had to do with the the sequence these
programs were loaded initially? Anyway, thanks to Microsoft's lack of
information (again).