Problems repairing Office 2000

[Steve Bursch]

I've installed Office 2000 SR-1 on my Windows XP Pro
system. Lately, I've run into some problems with the
McAfee anti-virus software, and during the course of
identifying those problems, I've had to uninstall/reinstall
Office 2000 several times. Now, when I insert the Office
2000 SR-1 CD to attempt a repair operation, I get a message
from the Windows Installer program that the patch package
cannot be opened. Needless to say, the repair operation
never gets started. When I attempt to use the same CD in
another machine, the operation completes successfully. The
CD doesn't appear to be corrupted.

I've previously installed Office 2000 SP3 on the XP system
via the Windows Update mechanism. The other machine does
not have Office SP3 installed. That machine has the
original SR-1 code installed.

Is this a problem where the Installer detects that the
current version of Office 2000 is newer than the one
present on the original CD and therefore prevents the
repair operation from overlaying newer software with
back-levelled versions?

Or is this a case where the Installer (or its registry
entries) got hosed during the several uninstall/reinstall
operations and now needs to be repaired somehow?

Any suggestions gratefully received!

 

[Beth Melton]

Steve,

This can be caused by several things but to correct it you will need
to zap the Windows Installer entry in the Registry and reinstall
Office.

Obtain the following utility and use it to remove only the reference
to Office. Once that is complete then you'll need to reinstall Office
to point the Windows Installer to your installation CD:

MS Installer Cleanup utility for Office 2000:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=238413


--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Guest]

Beth,

I followed the link you suggested, below, but discovered
the following sentence in its text:

"Important: The Msicu.exe and Msicuu.exe utilities are
not supported on systems where Microsoft Windows
Installer 2.0 or later is installed, including Microsoft
Windows XP."

I'm running XP Pro and I verified that my Windows
Installer version is 2.0.2600.1106 (by viewing the
properties of MSI.DLL).

Is there an XP equivalent for the Win 2000 Msicuu.exe
program? Since the MS Knowledge Base Article 238413
specifically states that I shouldn't use msicuu.exe on my
XP system, I'm reluctant to do that.

Any advice for me?

Thanks...Steve

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Steve,

As you found, if you have WinXP then the download utility will not
work for you. However you can use the updated MSIZap version 2.0 but
it has no UI and you need to use a Command Prompt for it.

You can find it on the Windows XP CD at:
D:\SUPPORT\TOOLS\SUPPORT.CAB

If you don't have the CD then you can obtain the Windows Installer 2.0
SDK from (although it is a BIG download for a small file):
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/

You also need the GUID for Office. This can be found in the Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Select each GUID until you find your version of Office in the Display
Name on the right. (Once found you can right-click the GUID and select
Rename to Copy it)

Then use a Command Prompt and navigate to the folder for MSIZap. If
you use MSIZap from the download the command would be similar to:

cd \Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin

The MSIZap command would look something like:
MSIZAP T {1080B04F-11E8-494E-9603-41168D4PF198}

To paste the GUID you previously copied click the system menu icon
(upper left corner) and you'll find Paste under the Edit menu.

Note that the product key used above is not for Office and is used
only as an example.


--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Jim]

I have this same problem, but I'm having some trouble
navigating the command prompt to MSIZap. When I try to do
it, I can see the command window "blink" open for a
minute, then it dissapears.

What am I doing wrong? Could you elaborate more on the
navigation of the command prompt?

Thanks in advance!

~Jim

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Jim,

You need to open a Command prompt window rather than using the Run
command. If you are unable to find it in the Start menu then go to
Start/Run and run: Command.

Then it should be just a matter of recalling DOS commands. ;-) (If you
need help post back we'll help you out)

Also, to exit the Command prompt all you need to do is type Exit and
press Enter.
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Steve Bursch]

Beth,

Using the MSIZap program worked great for me. I had no
problem locating it on the installation CD, and had no
problem locating the GUID for MS Office 2000 in the
registry. Now, after running the MSIZap program, and
after reinstalling Office (in the same directory
structure as before), I can insert the Office 2000
installation CD and start a repair operation. (Of
course, I don't need to repair anything, since I just
reinstalled the product, but at least the CD is accepted
now.)

I still have a problem, however, when launching MS
Outlook. It doesn't launch cleanly. Upon launch, I get
the following error dialog box message from Outlook:

"An extension failed to initialize. Can't open file:
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve Bursch\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft.... The file may not
exist, you may not have permission to open it, or it may
be open in another program. Right-click the folder that
contains the file, and then click Properties to check
your permission for the folder. You don't have
appropriate permission to perform this operation."

The problem occurs everytime I launch MS Outlook, even if
it's the very first program I launch after booting the
system. If I respond "OK" to the error dialog, Outlook
appears to complete its launch, but it's unclear whether
it's okay to continue using it. It seems to be okay, but
I'm not sure.

Unfortunately, the error dialog message does not include
the full pathname of the file that's in trouble.
Consequently, I don't know how to troubleshoot the
problem. Since I reinstalled Office in the same
directory structure as before, I'm suspicious that the
problem may have existed before I ran the MSIZap
program. I don't have any hard evidence for that
suspicion, however. Do you have any advice for me?

Thanks again for the great advice on the MSIZap tool. It
was exactly what I needed.

---Steve

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Steve,

Glad to hear your Office installation is now working correctly.

Hopefully in the near future MS will develop a utility with a user
interface for Windows Installer 2.0 but thankfully the problem can be
rectified.

As for you Outlook question, I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with this
problem. Perhaps one of the Outlook gurus will post the solution.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Jim]

I'm going to need help with those DOS commands, because I
still can't get this to work! Thanks!

Jim

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Jim,

In that case I recommend moving MSIZap to your C:\ drive to make it
easier to implement.

Then use the following steps:

- In the Registry locate the GUID for Office 2000 under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

You will need to select each GUID until you find your version of
Office in the Display
Name on the right.

- Once found you can right-click the GUID and select Rename to Copy it
- Go to Start/Run and type: Command
- Press Enter and a Command prompt window should open
- Type: CD\
- Press Enter
(This should take you to the root of drive C:\ )
- Type the following:
MSIZAP T
- Press your spacebar if necessary
- Click the System menu (little icon in the upper left corner of the
window)
- Navigate to Edit and click Paste

This should paste the GUID you previously copied next to MSIZIP T it
will look something like:

MSIZAP T {1080B04F-11E8-494E-9603-41168D4PF198}

- Press Enter to run the command
- If you encounter an error then the command was not issued correctly.
Otherwise, no news is good news.
- Type Exit and press Enter to close the Command prompt window
- Then reinstall Office to point the Windows Installer to your Office
installation

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/