P
Paul E
I came here today after searching the MS KB also. In both locations I found
reference to problems with MS Office XP applications crashing on start-up
with the error:
"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."
What I did not find was the solution.
When I was booting, Excel would try to load, ask if it should load in Safe
Mode, and crash no matter what I answered. I would try to start word, get
the error message and it also would crash despite apparently attempting to
run a repair. I could not uninstall Office, I could not Repair it.
The solution from a very helpful chap at MS Tech Support is as follows: (and
presuming you know how to back-up and/or edit your registry with great care)
a) Start | Run, enter Regedit into the box.
b) Highlight the My Computer at the very top of the Registry listing.
c) Control-F to start the Search routine
d) In "Find What", enter the word "Patches" (without quotes)
e) Check the "Keys" and the "Match whole string only" boxes, do NOT check
Values or Data; and click Find
f) When it finds the first one, right-click it and choose "Rename" and
rename it to OLDPatches
g) Now hit enter and press F3 to search for the next one.
h) Be patient, you should end up finding about 3-6 of them. Rename them all
to OLDPatches
i) Then, exit Regedit.
j) Turn off your virus protection
k) Put your Office XP CD in the CD drive
l) Open your Office applications like Excel and Word
m) They should load properly after brief updating
n) Turn your virus protection back on (of course!)
The above took me less than 5 minutes and worked flawlessly.
I hope some people will find this helpful. I am no pro at this so "use at
your own risk".
Paul
reference to problems with MS Office XP applications crashing on start-up
with the error:
"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."
What I did not find was the solution.
When I was booting, Excel would try to load, ask if it should load in Safe
Mode, and crash no matter what I answered. I would try to start word, get
the error message and it also would crash despite apparently attempting to
run a repair. I could not uninstall Office, I could not Repair it.
The solution from a very helpful chap at MS Tech Support is as follows: (and
presuming you know how to back-up and/or edit your registry with great care)
a) Start | Run, enter Regedit into the box.
b) Highlight the My Computer at the very top of the Registry listing.
c) Control-F to start the Search routine
d) In "Find What", enter the word "Patches" (without quotes)
e) Check the "Keys" and the "Match whole string only" boxes, do NOT check
Values or Data; and click Find
f) When it finds the first one, right-click it and choose "Rename" and
rename it to OLDPatches
g) Now hit enter and press F3 to search for the next one.
h) Be patient, you should end up finding about 3-6 of them. Rename them all
to OLDPatches
i) Then, exit Regedit.
j) Turn off your virus protection
k) Put your Office XP CD in the CD drive
l) Open your Office applications like Excel and Word
m) They should load properly after brief updating
n) Turn your virus protection back on (of course!)
The above took me less than 5 minutes and worked flawlessly.
I hope some people will find this helpful. I am no pro at this so "use at
your own risk".
Paul