Had to reinstall windows recently, and as I was in a hurry I just reinstalled over the old OS rather than wiping and starting fresh (all my data was on another partition). Now none of the office programs work - says they need to be installed from the CD... I tried this and got the following 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 instaler patch package." So I went to the add/remove software panel to uninstall, but no office progs showing there. Manually deleted the 'office' directory from windows. Tried again with reinstall, same message. Ran 'regseeker' to clean up any junk in registry, and tried again. same result. I've run out of things to try! Any ideas how I can reinstall??

"This patch package" Is it the orginal MS Office installation CD or part of a restore CD? It sounds like a Service pack for Office. Per the instructions found within my Office CD, it states I need only insert the CD and run Setup again to resinstall the product. In fact, I did just that two days ago in an effort to fix a small problem created when I upgraded from Win98FE to Win98SE in December. The installtion went fine but did not resolve my problem. I ultimately repaired that problem with VCM tool in sysedit. Bryan

~Bryan - I'm confused by the 'patch package' message as I'm not trying to apply a patch - I'm trying to reinstall from the original CD (office 2000 pro, CD1) after manually wiping the original installation. I dont remember ever patching office on my home pc. VCM tool in sysedit?? Tell me more... :-) Thanks, Wolfpeach

This may be a little bit of a problem... First, I would go to Microsoft and download all the critical updates...this MIGHT be the Microsoft Installer v2 that it's looking for... Check this out... http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q238413 I did some searching trying to find the location where you can download the v2 of Installer, but could not locate it... It's on M$oft site somewhere, I just don't have time to dig for it... An issue is that you deleted the Office folder... I suspect that when you reinstalled W98, some of the registry settings got changed that relate to Office and other progs that are not working... It MIGHT be the best option to wipe your HD, reformat and start all over...depending on how much you have, this make take less time than trying to work out the issues... Sorry I don;t have more Steve

Can you use the CD to 'Uninstall' Office first? MS Installer versions and the link to get to the download. VCM - Version Conflict Manager When updating from Win98FE to Win98SE MS decided to be sure to get a good install of the product so they overwrote many of the .dll files (Alledgedly to kill compeditor's software). Those that are overwritten are recorded within VCM. Like SFC, VCM can be used to restore the replaced versions. In my case I was looking for specific MS Word .dll files and sure enough they were there. I restored the ones I needed and all was good. You may want to look for MSO files within VCM taking note of any or all that you mess with. Your problem will likely be associated with a specific event that will show the associated date of the replacements. Of course, that event date would have been some time between Office working and then not working. Don't look for any files dated outside of that range so you do not wind up with more problems. I don't suspect you will resolve your problem taking this avenue. Bryan

Sysedit, sorry, no. Try Start, Run, msinfo32, and look in the Tools menu for Version Conflict Manager (VCM). Or, Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, Tools Menu. Regards, Bryan

Thx Bryan - will try the VCM trick, but suspect that wiping the office folder may cause problems.... will let you know. Wolfpeach