Hi - in a jam - installed a copy of office xp personal on my new vaio (did not include XP office) and found that the copy was protected, so uninstalled and am trying to install Office 2000. Get a command asking me midway to put in my Windows XP Professional disk (!!?) Any ideas of how I can work around this? Never owned XP Pro, and want to just install my Office 2000 with word, etc. to work without buying Office XP.

I'm confused, first you said you installed a copy of office xp personal (first sentence). Then you said it did not include XP office. Did you mean you installed XP Home operating system? I have XP Home and Office 2000 Pro works fine with it.

office might need some components that weren't added by default...thus it is asking for the CD so it can add the other components. Supposedly you bought Office (XP, 2000, whatever) to use on a windows machine, and that machine is using windows OS that you bought. Thus, it expects you to have the OS's original CD (or at least a partition for it. How did you get your OS? Pre-installed? Bought by you? Or pirated (since you mention trying to install a protected copy)... If you don't have your CD, you will probably need to find a friend with a CD. this is what i understand from your post: - bought a new vaio (no office product) - tried to install protected Office XP - removed Office XP and tried to install Office 2000 instead - Office 2000 asks for Windows XP Pro CD Well, if your Office XP install did fail, it should have completely removed itself. I don't understand why it would ask for the CD then. If you have a different OS, try using that instead?

I had exactly the same problem. I have not been able to resolve it and refuse to buy Office XP. I bought a brand new Toshiba notebook that came with Windows XP pro pre-installed. I have found out that Microsoft, when selling pre-installed WindowsXP, is not providing a separate CD for backup purposes. I tried to install my own copy of Office2000 professional, from the original CD I bought almost two years ago, and halfway through the setup, WindowsXP prompts for my original WindowsXP CD. It explains that the software I am trying to install is trying to update some file of the operating system, and XP needs to obtains the files from its original CD. Since I do not have a CD for Windows XP, the software should automatically search for the files in my hard disk; but it does not only fails to do so, but it doesn't allow me either to specify a route for the files. I have not been able to find a way installing the software, but am sure is not a problem of piracy, old installations, or anything that might be blamed on me. Its a software bug. Intentional or unintentional I don't know.