When you try to install Office 2003 Service Pack 2, you receive a "The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the windows installer service" error message, or the Setup program may not be completed, and you do not receive notification (906323)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Students and Teachers Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Access 2003
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  • Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
  • Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003
  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003

SYMPTOMS

When you have one or more of the programs that are listed in the "Applies to" section installed and you try to install Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), you receive the following error message:
The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the windows installer service because the program to be upgraded may be missing, or the upgrade patch may update a different version of the program. Verify that the program to be upgraded exists on your computer and that you have the correct upgrade patch.
Note This 1642 error message is also logged in the Office 2003 SP2 update installation log file.

For more information about troubleshooting an update installation, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

884290 How to troubleshoot an update installation by using log files in Office 2003

Additionally, when you install Office 2003 SP2 in the following scenarios, the Setup program may not be completed, and you do not receive notification:
  • You install Office 2003 SP2 by using the Microsoft Office Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site.
  • You download Office 2003 SP2 from the Microsoft Download Center, and you install the service pack in silent mode.

CAUSE

This issue may occur when you install Office 2003 SP2 when the following conditions are true:
  • You have Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed.
  • You have Microsoft Windows Installer 3.0 installed.
This issue has not been found to occur when you install Office 2003 SP2 when any one of the following conditions is true:
  • You have Windows Installer 3.0 installed, but you do not have Office 2003 SP1 installed.
  • You have Windows Installer 2.0 installed, and you have Office 2003 SP1 installed.
  • You have Windows Installer 2.0 installed, but you do not have Office 2003 SP1 installed.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use the following methods in the order that they are presented. If the first method does not resolve your issue, try the second method.

Method 1: Install Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2)

To resolve this issue, install Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2).

How to obtain Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2)

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
DownloadDownload the Windows Installer 3.1 Redistributable (v2) package now. For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

898715 An update for Windows Installer 3.1 is available for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and for the 64-bit editions of Windows XP

Method 2: Install the full-file version of Office 2003 SP2

To resolve this issue, install the full-file version of Office 2003 SP2.

How to obtain the full-file version of Office 2003 SP2

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
DownloadDownload the Office 2003 SP2 full-file version package now. For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

Note The link to the full-file version of Office 2003 SP2 is located at the bottom of the Microsoft Download Center Web page. The file name of the full-file version of Office 2003 SP2 is similar to the following:

Office2003SP2-KB887616-FullFile-LanguageAbbreviation.exe

For more information about Office 2003 Service Pack 2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

887616 Description of Office 2003 Service Pack 2

MORE INFORMATION

How to determine which version of Windows Installer is installed on your computer

To determine which version of Windows Installer is installed on the computer, follow these steps:
  1. In Windows Explorer, locate the Msi.dll file. This file is located in the following folder:

    Windows\System 32

  2. Right-click the Msi.dll file, and then click Properties.
  3. Click the Version tab, and then note the file version.
The following table lists the version information for Windows Installer.
Microsoft Windows InstallerVersion informationNotes
Windows Installer 3.03.00.3790.2180
Windows Installer 3.13.01.4000.1823This version is installed with the original Windows Installer 3.1 (v1) redistributable package.
Windows Installer 3.13.01.4000.1830This version is the version that was included with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.
Windows Installer 3.13.01.4000.2435 This version contains a fix that addresses the issue in which Windows Installer fails silently after you upgrade to Windows Installer 3.1.
For more information about the fix that is included in Windows Installer 3.1, version 3.01.4000.2435, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

898628 Windows Installer fails silently after you upgrade to Windows Installer 3.1

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:3/14/2006
Keywords:kberrmsg kbsetup kbtshoot kbprb KB906323 kbAudEndUser kbAudITPRO
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