Windows Installer 1

[stinkyluk]

I've noticed a few old threads on this problem but no responses so I am trying again. I am running WinXP Home and Office 2000 Pro. Everything has been fine until I tried to open an Access Wizard from the New Document link. All of the wizards were associated with WinAmp. I reassociated the files but I still couldn't open them unless Access was open and I went the New Document there. I thought I would try to reinstall Office to clear this up and I get the error message:

"This patch package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer patch package."

I get the same message when I try to uninstall Office. I looked on Microsoft's FAQs and the answer was only for earlier Windows Installer software not 2.0. Can I manually remove the info from my registry? If so, should I just remove the whole Office registry and try to reinstall?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bluegroper]

Might need to reinstall WindoZe.
Start with format c: or even fdisk to delete existing partition/s.

 

[stinkyluk]

I have reinstalled Windows with no luck. Boy I sure do not want to format my C:

 

[TomCologne]

Probably to late for you, stinkyluk, but it might still be helpful for somebody else. MS's "msicuu" tool did not work in my case, so I did it manually:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\904010001E872D116BF00006799C897E\Patches]

In this folder, delete the key "Patches:,Type: Reg_Multi_SZ".
Leave all entries of type "Reg_SZ" for the time being.

Depending on the particular Office version, the "904010001E872D116BF00006799C897E" value may of course be different. Use the "Find" option!

Once I had it removed, Off2k pro (w/ Win2k pro) was ready to be repaired, reinstalled or removed again.

I recommend not only exporting the entire registry first, but also the specific key. Save it as *.reg to allow for easy reconstruction.

To keep track of any changes, create a new folder for the exports and a simple Notepad file, copy & paste the key name AND the corresponding *.reg file you exported before.

Be careful, not afraid,

TomCologne

 

[stinkyluk]

Thanks, I will definitely keep this on file for the future. I did end up formatting on this machine but I have about 50 others that I'm sure will cause me some sort of grief in the future!