I Am So Lost... "Preparing To Install" Error

[Ballzo]

Good afternoon All;

I have Office 2003 installed on my PC.

Prior to that I participated in the Beta of Office 2003.
Then I purchased the full version.

I am plagued by a series of minor, but highly annoying errors.

I posted this before several months ago, never resolved the problem and now
here I am again..

On my initial system restart if I execute any Office app, I am greeted by a
brief dialogue box that says "Preparing To Install."
If I open Word another dialogue box states, "A feature is missing. Would you
like to install it now?"

Once I get past these initial errors I can freely use any Office app without
seeing the errors again..
But if i resart my system the whole cycle starts all over again.

I've installed. I've uninstalled several times. I've run "Detect and
Repair."
All without success.

I've serached Google and newsgroups until I'm blind...
There are MS solutions to this issue, but they pertain to older Office
versions and don't seem to apply to office 2003.

Friends suggest that all this goes back to my original Beta installation.
Honestly, I can't recall whether I uninstalled the Beta and installed the
full version
or installed over the Beta..

There must be an answer...

Am I looking at Format C: here?

Seems like such a big hammer for such a small fly...

Thanks,

B

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Hi, Ballzo,

Have you tried the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility? Might be worth a
shot:

290301 - Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301&Product=offxp

I'd try to run it to remove all references to Office 2003 in the Windows
Installer, then re-install the full version.

 

[Ballzo]

Hi, Ballzo,

Have you tried the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility? Might be worth a
shot:

290301 - Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301&Product=offxp

I'd try to run it to remove all references to Office 2003 in the Windows
Installer, then re-install the full version.

Susan;

Thanks for replying...

I tried that...

I have 2 user profiles..
1) Administrator
2) My Name= Administrator rights

Using the Installer Utility causes one profile and all Office apps not to
function at all..
So I had to reinstall in that profile even though it was already installed
under the Administrator profile.
Does that make sense?

Where things are at now is this:

On resart If I open Word I receive the following eror:
"An error occurred and this feature is no longer installed properly. Would
you like to repair this feature now?"

I click yes. A status bar installs something. But the "feature" is never
described.
Once this is done all is well for that "session." Meaning that I have no
problems using any Office applications.

However once I reboot or restart, the whole miserable process starts all
over again.
Sorry to be caustic here, I just am at my wits end as to how to solve this
problem.

I am willing yo try anything short of a full reformat. I don't want to do
that unless all resources are fully exhausted.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

B

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Hi, Ballzo,

Frankly, I'm not finding you very caustic, in writing <g>. Don't worry
about it; it's obviously frustrating. I'm not guaranteeing we can resolve
it, but here are further questions/suggestions:

Did you do all this under the Administrator profile, or under the My Name
profile? I think I'd try it under both:

Remove the Installer Data under both profiles
Then log in as administrator (I know, it shouldn't matter, because My Name
is an administrator, but try it as machine administrator)
Do a complete re-installation of the apps
Then still as administrator, do the product activation
Log in as My Name and see if everything works

If not, try running setup again as My Name (which shouldn't take very long,
because the application files already exist).

What OS are you running?

 

[Ballzo]

Hi, Ballzo,

Frankly, I'm not finding you very caustic, in writing <g>. Don't worry
about it; it's obviously frustrating. I'm not guaranteeing we can resolve
it, but here are further questions/suggestions:

Did you do all this under the Administrator profile, or under the My Name
profile? I think I'd try it under both:

Remove the Installer Data under both profiles
Then log in as administrator (I know, it shouldn't matter, because My Name
is an administrator, but try it as machine administrator)
Do a complete re-installation of the apps
Then still as administrator, do the product activation
Log in as My Name and see if everything works

If not, try running setup again as My Name (which shouldn't take very long,
because the application files already exist).

What OS are you running?

This is under Windows XP SP1.

I did most of this, this morning. I agree with you. Though both profiles are
Administrator profiles something told me to do this as machine
administrator.
I installed under Name=Administrator. When I did that my apps did not work.
I had to login as machine administrator and install from there. Then all was
well, except for the errors encountered on restart.

To complicate all this, I was originally running OfficeXP. The Beta of
Office 2003 was released. I do not recall if I ever uninstalled Office XP.
All was well with the very 1st beta of Office 2003. It was with the 2nd beta
that I started to experience these "Preparing To Install" errors. The 2nd
beta release of O2K3. I would revert to Beta 1 and the errors would
disappear. Beta 2 had these errors, as did the final release of Office
2003... For whatever that's worth.

I need some time to do your suggested startegy which will be tomorrow.

I'll do it sequentially as you recommended and post my results.

May Thanks,

B

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Good luck; you might also remove the Windows Installer data for Office XP.
If your Office 2003 is an upgrade, you'll need to make sure you have the
original Office XP installation media available for the upgrade
installation, though.

Do post back--

 

[Quaoar]

Good afternoon All;

I have Office 2003 installed on my PC.

Prior to that I participated in the Beta of Office 2003.
Then I purchased the full version.

I am plagued by a series of minor, but highly annoying errors.

I posted this before several months ago, never resolved the problem
and now here I am again..

On my initial system restart if I execute any Office app, I am
greeted by a brief dialogue box that says "Preparing To Install."
If I open Word another dialogue box states, "A feature is missing.
Would you like to install it now?"

Once I get past these initial errors I can freely use any Office app
without seeing the errors again..
But if i resart my system the whole cycle starts all over again.

I've installed. I've uninstalled several times. I've run "Detect and
Repair."
All without success.

I've serached Google and newsgroups until I'm blind...
There are MS solutions to this issue, but they pertain to older Office
versions and don't seem to apply to office 2003.

Friends suggest that all this goes back to my original Beta
installation. Honestly, I can't recall whether I uninstalled the Beta
and installed the full version
or installed over the Beta..

There must be an answer...

Am I looking at Format C: here?

Seems like such a big hammer for such a small fly...

Thanks,

B

Someone who *should* be identified within the Microsoft Office team,
thought that having an installer that allowed partial installs was a
good idea. If you select "install on first use" for any of the Office
components, this is the behavior that Office exhibits. Office XP
apparently in some instances does "install on first use" by default on
some Office components for a Normal installation. I want someone to
tell me why I or anyone else on Planet Earth would want to "install on
first use"?

Anyway, I think you can correct the problem by performing an "add Office
components" installation, and when the installer opens, select custom,
and select the top entry, Office (in its entirety), click the plus and
select *anything* except "install on first use". At least this is what
I've done on my installation and the warnings disappear.

Q

 

[Ballzo]

Good luck; you might also remove the Windows Installer data for Office XP.
If your Office 2003 is an upgrade, you'll need to make sure you have the
original Office XP installation media available for the upgrade
installation, though.

Do post back--

Well, no joy....

I uninstalled Office 2003 under Administrator.
Grasping at straws, I restarted and elected to do a custom installation. I
was looking for any regerences to "Install on First Use."
I selected "Run All From My Computer."

Installation was successful. I opened Word, then Excel without any errors.

I logged off and logged on under the MyName profile.

I excuted Word and was greeted with the error message, "Word failed to
start. Would you like to start in Safe Mode?"
And then something about "Detect and Repair." I selected detect and Repair.
All went smoothly. Office apps open without error.
I logged off and logged back on as Administrator. I opened Word. An error
message greeted my efforts, "A feature is not installed properly. Would you
like to install this feature now?" What the heck... I say yes... it executes
successfully. All is well.

I logged off and logged back on under the MyName profile. Opened Word.
Greeted with the same error message.. "A feature is not properly
installed..."

Wonder if dual profiles has anything to do with this...

I ran the Installer cleanup. All went well but still the same...

Something is is killing me here... Something...

Bottom line after all that I'm back to square one.. Office is OK as long as
I do not logoff/logon or restart...
This is very baffling.

What to do next I wonder... Such a small error, so much work for an elusive
answer...

Any other suggestions most welcome...

Thanks,

B

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Well, I'm at a loss, too...at this point, I think it would be worth the call
to MS Product support. You could try a re-installation of your OS, but
that's pretty drastic, too.

Have you done regular maintenance-type things on your computer to rule out
bad disk sectors or whatnot? Like...clean out the temp folder, scandisk and
defrag?

 

[Ballzo]

Well, I'm at a loss, too...at this point, I think it would be worth the call
to MS Product support. You could try a re-installation of your OS, but
that's pretty drastic, too.

Have you done regular maintenance-type things on your computer to rule out
bad disk sectors or whatnot? Like...clean out the temp folder, scandisk and
defrag?

Yup... Sure have...

All is well... No viruses or hardware related issues whatsover...

Stumped, stumped, stumped...

Thanks,

B