You receive a "This installation package could not be opened" error message when you try to run Office XP Setup (290525)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office XP Professional
  • Microsoft Office XP Small Business
  • Microsoft Office XP Standard
  • Microsoft Office XP Students and Teachers
  • Microsoft Office XP Developer
  • Microsoft Access 2002
  • Microsoft Excel 2002
  • Microsoft FrontPage 2002
  • Microsoft Outlook 2002
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2002
  • Microsoft Word 2002
This article was previously published under Q290525

SYMPTOMS

When you try to run Microsoft Office XP Setup, you may receive one of the following error messages:
This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package.
-or-
This installation package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package.

CAUSE

One of these error messages can occur if the locally cached Windows Installer package (*.msi) file is damaged or corrupted.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, follow the appropriate steps.

If You Already Installed Office XP

IMPORTANT: If Office XP is not yet installed on your computer, do not use these steps to resolve this problem. Instead, go to the "If You Are Trying to Install Office XP" section later in this article.
  1. On the Start menu, click Run.
  2. In the Open box, type the following command line, and then click OK:

    path\Setup.exe /fv version.msi

    Path in this command line is the path to your Office Setup files, and version is the version title of the MSI file that corresponds to the version of Office that you are installing.

If You Are Trying to Install Office XP

If Office XP is not yet installed on your computer, do not use the preceding steps to resolve this problem. Instead, follow these steps:
  1. Open the \Windows\Installer folder on your computer's hard disk.
  2. Right-click any file with an .msi extension.
  3. Click Properties on the shortcut menu.

    The Subject box on the Summary tab contains the name of the product that installed the .msi file.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each .msi file in the \Installer folder, and delete the .msi file for the version of Office that you are trying to install.
For additional information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

229819 BUG: "Installing this product requires the Windows Installer" error message when you run Setup for Office 2000

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:2/16/2006
Keywords:kbtshoot kbsetup kberrmsg kbprb KB290525
©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.