OFF2000: Error Message: "Another Version of This Product Is Already Installed" After Restart (228666)


The information in this article applies to:

  • the operating system: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Premium
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Professoinal
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Standard
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Developer
  • Microsoft Access 2000
  • Microsoft Excel 2000
  • Microsoft FrontPage 2000
  • Microsoft Outlook 2000
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2000
  • Microsoft Word 2000
This article was previously published under Q228666

SYMPTOMS

When your computer restarts after you run Office Setup, you may receive the following error message:
Another version of this product is already installed. Installation of this version cannot continue. To configure or remove the existing version of this product, use Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel.
Your only option is to click OK.

The Office programs have shortcuts on the Programs menu, but the icons are generic Windows icons. If you click one of these shortcuts, the program starts but then quits without an error message after a few seconds.

CAUSE

You may receive this error message if all of the following are true:
  • You are using Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. -and-

  • You do not have the Windows Desktop Update installed. -and-

  • A member of the Administrators group advertised the Office installation by running Setup by using the /j switch. For example:

    Setup.exe /jm data1.msi.

    -and-

  • You, a non-administrative user, ran Setup using the ALLUSERS property on the command line. For example:

    Setup.exe ALLUSERS="" /qb+

There is no support for performing a per-user installation of Office if Office was advertised with the /j switch.

NOTE: If you do have the Windows Desktop Update installed and you run

Setup.exe /jm data1.msi

as a member of the Administrators group, the Office shortcuts are automatically copied into the All Users profile. This is because the /jm switch creates a per-computer advertised installation of Office. So, there is no need to have any user run Setup. In this scenario, there is no way to have Office installed for just a single user.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

  1. Log off as the non-administrative user who ran Setup with the ALLUSERS property, and log on as a member of the Administrators group.
  2. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
  3. Double-click the entry for Office 2000. This puts your computer into Maintenance Mode Setup.
  4. Click Remove Office in the Microsoft Office 2000 Maintenance Mode dialog box.
  5. Click Yes to confirm that you want to remove Office.
  6. Remove any Office shortcuts in the \Winnt\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder and in the \Startup folder of the non-administrative user who ran Setup.
If you want to have the computer configured so that you, a non-administrative user, can install Office and only have Office installed in your profile, follow these steps:
  1. Log on as a member of the Administrators group.
  2. Double-click Instmsiw.exe in the Msi folder on the Office CD. This installs the Windows Installer files.
  3. Apply the Always install with elevated privileges system policy to the non-administrative user who will be running Office Setup.
  4. With the Always install with elevated privileges policy in effect, log on as a non-administrative user.
  5. On the Start menu, click Run.
  6. In Open, type

    path\setup.exe ALLUSERS="" /qb

    where path is the location of the setup point, and then click OK.
NOTE: You must use either the /q or the /qb combination on the above command line, because you are using the Always install with elevated privileges policy. For more information, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge base:

227813 OFF2000: Setup Switch /q or /qb Required on Windows NT or Windows 2000

When Setup finishes, only Office will be installed in this user's profile. For more information about System Policies and policy templates for Office, see the Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit by browsing to the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork.

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/13/2006
Keywords:kbprb KB228666
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