"The update cannot be applied" error message when you try to install an update to an advertised Office product (319906)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 2000 (Setup)
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 Q319906

SYMPTOMS

When you try to apply an update to an advertised Microsoft Office product (installed by using the /j switch), you receive the following error message:

The update cannot be applied because of one or both of the following reasons: (1) The update applies to a different language version of the product (2) The product this patch updates is not installed.

NOTE: Advertise refers to the Windows Installer method for making a program available to the user without installing it. When the user tries to use the program, the program is installed and run.

CAUSE

When you install a Microsoft Office product by using the /j switch, the Office product is not installed on your computer but is only advertised. The version of Windows Installer on your computer cannot detect the product as installed.

For additional information about Setup switches, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

283686 OFFXP: Setup Command-Line Switches for Office XP

202946 OFF2000: Setup Command-Line Switches for Office 2000

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, before you apply the update, run the advertised Office product to install the product on your computer. If you have more than one program in the product (such as a Microsoft Office suite), running any program in the product installs the whole product.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Windows Installer, see the following Microsoft Web sites:

Microsoft Office XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/one/depa02.htm

Microsoft Office 2000:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/two/30t5_2.htm#dex35

For more information about advertised installations, see the following Microsoft Web sites:

Microsoft Office XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/Office/ORK/xp/ONE/depb09.htm

Microsoft Office 2000:

http://www.microsoft.com/Office/ORK/2000/Two/30t5_2.htm

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	4/17/2006
Keywords:	kbtshoot kbsetup kbUpdate kberrmsg kbnofix kbprb KB319906