OFF97: SR-1 Patch May Fail to Update Word 97 in OEM Versions

ID: Q185279

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 97 for Windows, Service Release 1 (SR-1)
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you install the Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1) Patch on your computer, the patch may fail to update the Microsoft Word 97 for Windows program file, Winword.exe. As a result, the following problems may occur:

When you click About Microsoft Word on the Help menu, the dialog box contains the words "Microsoft Word 97" instead of "Microsoft Word 97 SR-1."

Problems that are fixed in Microsoft Word 97 SR-1 continue to occur because the program has not been updated.

Visual Basic code that uses Automation to control Microsoft Word 97 may not work correctly.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if you attempt to use the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch to update an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) copy of Microsoft Office 97 or Microsoft Word 97.

Specifically, the problem occurs if the following key in the Microsoft Windows registry refers to an incorrect location for Microsoft Word 97:


   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{000209FF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
LocalServer32

The incorrect information in the registry key has been found on computers on which an OEM copy of Microsoft Office 97 or Microsoft Word 97 is installed.

WORKAROUND

To correct this problem, run either the Microsoft Office 97 or the Microsoft Word 97 Setup program with the "/r" and "/y" switches, and then reinstall the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch. To do this, follow these steps:

Quit all running Microsoft Office programs.

On the Start menu, click Run. Click Browse and open to the Program Files\Microsoft Office folder. Select the shortcut called "Microsoft Office Setup" or "Microsoft Word Setup." Click Open.

Go to the end of the Open box. Add spaces and both the /r and /y switches so that the command line resembles either of the following:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Microsoft Office Setup.lnk" /r /y

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Microsoft Word Setup.lnk" /r /y

Click OK.

The Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word Setup program is run. The /r switch instructs the Setup program to reinstall all files, and the /y switch instructs the Setup program to rewrite all of the registry keys used by Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word. The two switches combined cause the Setup program to verify that your installation of Microsoft Office 97 or Microsoft Word 97 is correct.

When the Setup program is finished, run the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch again.

When the SR-1 Patch is finished running, start Microsoft Word 97. On the Help menu, click About Microsoft Word.

The About dialog box should contain the words "Microsoft Word 97 SR-1." If it does not, you must completely uninstall (remove) and reinstall Microsoft Office 97.

For more information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q172475 OFF97: How to Obtain and Install MS Office 97 SR-1

Q173990 OFF97: Troubleshooting the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch

STATUS

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

MORE INFORMATION

To determine if this problem has occurred, you can also open the SR-1 Patch log file, 97sr1_0.txt, which is located in the following folder:


   C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office

Open the patch log file and look for the following line, which is in the first 20 lines of the file:

Office files considered vital were not found (winword.exe).

If you see this line, the problem may have occurred. Use the steps in the "Workaround" section to correct the problem.

Additional query words: OFF97 WD97 sr1 dell sbe


Keywords          : kbsetup offsetup 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 25, 1999