Problem installing Office Pro 2003 - patch package problem

[broberg]

I am trying to install Office Pro 2003 on a new laptop running Windows XP
Home with sp2. The installation fails almost immediatley with error message,

"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 have read through the similar threads already posted on patch package
problems. I tried using the Windows Installer Clean Up utility, but I was
unable to find any Office programs/files using that. I tried installing the
CD on another computer, and that began with no problems. I'm not sure what's
different between the two computers. The computer I want to load Office on is
brand new, purchased in the last month.

Any suggestions?

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

If the new laptop came with a trial version of Office 2003
preinstalled on the hard drive by the computer manufacturer, then
you should uninstall the trial version from
Start->ControlPanel->AddOrRemovePrograms before you try to
install your full version of Office 2003 Professional.

 

[broberg]

I'm not sure if the trial version came preinstalled on the hard drive.
(Someone else tried to get this working before me, and I'm not sure what they
did. They could have uninstalled it already, or perhaps it never was
installed.) At this point, anyways, there is no trace of anything
Office-related on the computer. More suggestions?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

You receive the "This patch package could not be opened" error message in an
Office program
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295823/en-us

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, broberg asked:

| I'm not sure if the trial version came preinstalled on the hard drive.
| (Someone else tried to get this working before me, and I'm not sure
| what they did. They could have uninstalled it already, or perhaps it
| never was installed.) At this point, anyways, there is no trace of
| anything Office-related on the computer. More suggestions?

 

[broberg]

I've already read the Q295823 article before I posted. I downloaded the
Windows Installer Utility and ran it. I couldn't see anything that looked
related t Office at all. There's not even anything that says "Microsoft."
There are a bunch of mysterious entries like this: "[]" I am still not able
to install Office.

 

[Greg]

I came across this post while searching for a solution to the Windows
Installer appearing when loading any application on my PC after having
un-installed Visio Pro 2003. I downloaded the "Windows Install Cleanup
Utility", selected Visio Pro 2003 from the listing and my PC no longer
displays the Windows Installer dialog every time I launch a program.

The Visio Pro 2003 program no longer appears in my Add/Remove Programs
listing, but the program files still remain on my PC, Microsoft's web site
said it would. It recommends if you re-install Visio 2003 Pro, that you
install it to the "same" location to prevent duplication of files.

I'm assuming at this point I can just delete these Visio Program Files now
that it's been removed from the registry, Add/Remove Programs listing, etc? I
have no plans of re-installing the program on this PC.

Thanks for the post.
Greg

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Greg,

Even though you don't plan to use the program you may get a better result by following the article. Reinstall the program to the
same location, restart the PC then uninstall it. Not all of the files that are used by the program are in the Visio folders of the
Program Files area.

========
I came across this post while searching for a solution to the Windows
Installer appearing when loading any application on my PC after having
un-installed Visio Pro 2003. I downloaded the "Windows Install Cleanup
Utility", selected Visio Pro 2003 from the listing and my PC no longer
displays the Windows Installer dialog every time I launch a program.

The Visio Pro 2003 program no longer appears in my Add/Remove Programs
listing, but the program files still remain on my PC, Microsoft's web site
said it would. It recommends if you re-install Visio 2003 Pro, that you
install it to the "same" location to prevent duplication of files.

I'm assuming at this point I can just delete these Visio Program Files now
that it's been removed from the registry, Add/Remove Programs listing, etc? I
have no plans of re-installing the program on this PC.

Thanks for the post.
Greg >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

Pricing and Packages for '2007 Microsoft Office System'
http://microsoft.com/office/preview

 

[Greg]

Hi Bob,

As you suggested, I re-installed/un-installed Visio Pro 2003 to remove it's
footprint from my system. After going through this process twice, the
un-install processes failed to remove "all" of the program files. I've listed
the details of my two re-install/un-install attempts below:

#1: The first time I re-installed using the "Typical" option and ran no Web
updates, unlike my initial install. This resulted in many of the original
Visio Pro 2003 files remaining on the system.

#2: This time I choose a "Full" install to ensure everything was installed.
My original install was "Custom" and I choose most of the otpions. Plus, this
time I choose to run the Web Updates option as well. The Office Updates
failed and returned the following messages:

--- Text returned from Office Update ---
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.
--- End of Text returned from Office Update ---

Now I cannot download any Office Updates. ("This may have been the case
before doing the Visio Pro re-install"). Also, I'm not running Office 2003,
I'm running Office XP/2002. Is their a conflict in having Office XP and Visio
Pro 2003 on the same system?

As it stands right now, I have about 63.4MB of files remaining on my system
from the Visio Pro 2003 installaiton after un-installing the software. At the
high level, the following folders remain in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office 2003\Visio Pro 2003 folder, MEDIA, OFFICE11 and Visio11. The MEDIA
folder is empty and the other folders are full.

Other than these files, there are no traces of Visio Pro 2003 in the
Add/Remove Programs seciton or on my Start Menu. At this point, I'm not quite
sure what to do with these remaining Visio files other than to just leave
them in place.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Greg