How to change the server location for Office source files (267362)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office XP (Setup)
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Access 2003
  • Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003
  • Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Student and Teachers Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  • Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
  • 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 Q267362

SUMMARY

When you install Microsoft Office from an administrative installation point on a network server, the full path of the Office Setup location on the server is written in the Microsoft Windows Installer configuration management information.

If the server is unavailable, you cannot do the following operations:
  • Repair or reinstall your Office installation.
  • Install a feature that was originally set to Installed on First Use.
  • Add a feature that is not yet installed by using Maintenance Mode Setup.
To use these features, you can update the Windows registry so that the Windows Installer uses a different server location. The "More Information" section article describes how to do this.

MORE INFORMATION

If the location where you originally installed Office is unavailable, you may receive the following error message if the Windows Installer has to repair, reinstall, or add a feature to your installation:
The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

Click OK to try again, or enter an alternative path in the box below.
If you want to change the network location used by the Windows Installer, use one of the following methods.

Method 1

  1. Create an administrative installation on the server for which you want to change the Office Setup location.
  2. On the network client, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, and then click Run.
    2. In the Open box, type the following command line:

      MSIEXEC /i admin path\MSI file REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vomus /qb

      where admin path is the path of your new administrative installation point, and where MSI file is the Windows Installer database package for your Office product.

      This will recache the Windows Installer package if the new administrative installation point was patched later than the local package, and this will rewrite the Per Machine Keys that hold the source list and LastUsedSource.

      Note You must be logged on as a member of the Administrators group to run this command.
    3. Click OK.
    From this point, the Windows Installer will use this new server location whenever it has to reinstall, repair, or add a feature to your Office installation.

Method 2

Additionally, you can programmatically configure your installation sources. For more information about how to programmatically configure the windows installer list of install sources, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

297168 How to programmatically update the source list for an installed Windows Installer package

Note The original server location is still stored in the registry. Therefore, if the second server location is unavailable, the Windows Installer tries to access the first server location to see whether it is available. If neither location is available, you receive the error message described earlier. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

840169 Full-file version update may request Office source files

830168 Frequently asked questions about the Local Install Source feature in Office 2003

825933 Local Install Source (Msocache)

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:4/27/2006
Keywords:kbRegistry kbhowto kbinfo kbpubtypekc kbmsccsearch KB267362
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