OFF97: Cannot Install Patch If MS Office 97 Is Not Located

• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows, Service Release 1 Patch

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, you should first make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat). Both are hidden files in the Windows folder.

SYMPTOMS

When you run the Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1) Patch, you may receive the following error message

   Microsoft Office 97 SR-1
   Office 97 cannot be located on this machine! Office 97 SR-1 will now
   abort.

You receive this error message even though one or more of the following programs are installed on the computer:

   Microsoft Office 97
   Microsoft Excel 97
   Microsoft Word 97
   Microsoft Access 97
   Microsoft PowerPoint 97
   Microsoft Outlook 97

CAUSE

This problem occurs if BOTH of the following keys are missing from the Microsoft Windows registry:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0\BinDirPath

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Common\InstallRoot\
      OfficeBin

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows 95. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the Changing Keys And Values online Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). Note that you should make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat) before you edit the registry.

To resolve this problem, add the two missing keys to the registry. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Start menu, click Run. In the Open box, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks). Click OK.

2. In the registry tree, in the order given, click the plus sign to the left of each of the following items:

         HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
         SOFTWARE
         Microsoft
         Office
   

   Then, click the folder to the left of "8.0." The path displayed in the status bar is the following:

         My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0
   

3. On the Edit menu, point to New and click String Value. Type "BinDirPath" (without the quotation marks) and press ENTER.

4. In the right pane, click BinDirPath. Then, click Modify on the Edit menu. Type the path to the folder that contains Microsoft Office 97 (usually, the path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office) and click OK.

5. In the registry tree, click the plus sign to the left of the Common folder, which is located below the 8.0 folder. Then, click the folder to the left of InstallRoot. The path that is displayed in the status bar is the following:

         My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0\
            Common\InstallRoot
   
   

6. On the Edit menu, point to New and click String Value. Type "OfficeBin" (without the quotation marks) and press ENTER.

7. In the right pane, click OfficeBin. Then, click Modify on the Edit menu. Type the path to the folder that contains Microsoft Office 97 (usually, the path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office) and click OK.

8. On the Registry menu, click Exit.

STATUS

This behavior is by design of the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch.

MORE INFORMATION

When you run the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch, it uses the BinDirPath and OfficeBin registry keys to determine the location in which Microsoft Office 97 is installed on your computer. If the patch cannot find either of two the registry keys, the patch assumes that Microsoft Office 97 is not installed on the computer and it does not allow you to continue.