OFF2000: Error Installing or Upgrading the Windows Installer

ID: Q229819

The information in this article applies to:

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**                           - WARNING -                           **
**     THE INFORMATION BELOW IS PRELIMINARY AND HAS NOT BEEN       **
**     CONFIRMED OR TESTED BY MICROSOFT. USE ONLY                  **
**     WITH DISCRETION.                                            **
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SYMPTOMS

When you run Setup for Office, the following error message may appear:

Installing this product requires the Windows Installer. An error occurred when installing or upgrading the Windows Installer.


RESOLUTION

If Setup is having problems installing or updating the Windows Installer on your computer, try the following steps to manually perform this operation:

  1. Open the \Msi folder on the root of the Office compact disc.


  2. If you are using Windows 95 or later, double-click Instmsi.exe. If you are using Windows NT 4.0, double-click Instmsiw.exe. If you receive the above error message after step 2, continue with step 3. Otherwise, run Office Setup again.


  3. If you are using Windows 95, open the \IE5\En folder on the Office CD, otherwise skip to Step 7.


  4. Double-click DCOM95.exe.


  5. Follow the DCOM95 dialog boxes, and restart your computer when prompted.


  6. Run Office Setup again.


  7. Click Start, and click Run.


  8. In the Open box, type the following command line:
    <path>\Msi\Instmsi.exe /c /t:c:\Test
    where <path> is the path to the installation point. NOTE: If you are using Windows NT 4.0, change Instmsi.exe in the above command line to Instmsiw.exe. This command line expands the Windows Installer package files into the C:\Test folder on your hard disk.


  9. Click Start, and click Run.


  10. In the Open box, type the following command line:
    c:\test\msiinst.exe /i instmsi.msi /qb+


  11. Click OK to the alert stating the Windows Installer Setup completed successfully.


  12. Run Office Setup again.


To create a log file for step 2 instead of double-clicking Instmsi.exe (or Instmsiw.exe), use the following command line:
<path>\Msi\Instmsi.exe /c:"msiinst.exe /i instmsi.msi /l*v c:\instmsi.log /qb+"
NOTE: If you are using Windows NT 4.0, change Instmsi.exe in the above command line to Instmsiw.exe. This command line creates a verbose log file called Instmsi.log on the root of your C drive.

If you need to create a log file for the process of installing the Windows Installer files, replace the command line from step 10 with the following:
c:\test\msiinst.exe /i instmsi.msi /l*v c:\instmsi.log /qb+
This creates a verbose log file called Instmsi.log on the root of your C drive.


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: OFF2000 


Keywords          : kberrmsg 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: July 29, 1999