Windows Installer Error

[anonymous]

I installed Office 2000 on my Windows XP computer and
when I open the installer, there is an error that
says, "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." Because of this
error, I cannot install Office 2000. I cannot uninstall
Office 2000 because of the error so I cannot install
Office XP Professional.

 

[Eric Booth]

I installed Office 2000 on my Windows XP computer and
when I open the installer, there is an error that
says, "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." Because of this
error, I cannot install Office 2000. I cannot uninstall
Office 2000 because of the error so I cannot install
Office XP Professional.

Have a look at Microsoft article 315346
Eric Booth

 

[Brian]

Have a look at Microsoft article 315346
Eric Booth

That article refers to an entirely different installer issue. The patch
package message is an indication that the installer link to the product has
been corrupted. It can be corrected by disabling the link in the registry
and reinstalling the product. That is done as follows:

Click Start/Run then type Regedit and click OK.

1) Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products and scroll down the list of
numbers to locate the product name Office 2000 (in the right hand panel)
There is an entry for every product called ProductName
2) Rename the product id key (the long string of numbers in the left-hand
panel) to something starting with an underscore (in case you need to
reinstate it).
3) Uninstall Office 2000 and then install Office XP.

There is even no need to reboot the PC.

Brian