I have both Office 2003 and Office 2007 installed on my XP Pro machine. 
Office 2007 is working just fine, but in the past month or so I see the 
Windows Installer preparing to install message every time I start Word, 
Excel, Access, or Publishing 2003. All four programs open after a minute 
or so; in Word I get an error message: "An error occurred and this 
feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run setup and select 
Repair." The other three programs do not display such a message. I have 
not installed Powerpoint 2003.

I have tried running Setup from my Office 2003 CD, but I get another 
error message: "Patch package could not be opened."

I tried running "Detect and Repair" from the Help menu in Excel 2003 and 
got the same patch package error message.

Is there an easy solution to the problem or is it time to give up on the 
earlier version? I use Office 2007 much more often than 2003.

I have downloaded the Windows Installed CleanUp utility as suggested in 
another thread, but I'm not sure whether running that will help.

Bill

See if this will solve the issue

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

-- 
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"Billns" <billns@nsverizon.net> wrote in message 
news:%23mEqrK7vKHA.4636@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have both Office 2003 and Office 2007 installed on my XP Pro machine. Office 2007 
>is working just fine, but in the past month or so I see the Windows Installer 
>preparing to install message every time I start Word, Excel, Access, or Publishing 
>2003. All four programs open after a minute or so; in Word I get an error message: 
>"An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run 
>setup and select Repair." The other three programs do not display such a message. I 
>have not installed Powerpoint 2003.
>
> I have tried running Setup from my Office 2003 CD, but I get another error 
> message: "Patch package could not be opened."
>
> I tried running "Detect and Repair" from the Help menu in Excel 2003 and got the 
> same patch package error message.
>
> Is there an easy solution to the problem or is it time to give up on the earlier 
> version? I use Office 2007 much more often than 2003.
>
> I have downloaded the Windows Installed CleanUp utility as suggested in another 
> thread, but I'm not sure whether running that will help.
>
> Bill 

On 3/9/2010 10:08 AM, Peter Foldes wrote:
> See if this will solve the issue
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
>
I was hoping to find a method that would not require re-installing 
Office 2003. The utility mentioned in the kb article tells me that the 
programs will not work properly after deleting the Installer files.

I've got Office 2003 on my laptop, too. I may just fire up that machine 
when I want to run 2003 stuff, which isn't very often.

Bill

"Billns" <billns@nsverizon.net> wrote in message 
news:%23mEqrK7vKHA.4636@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have both Office 2003 and Office 2007 installed on my XP Pro machine. 
>Office 2007 is working just fine, but in the past month or so I see the 
>Windows Installer preparing to install message every time I start Word, 
>Excel, Access, or Publishing 2003. All four programs open after a minute or 
>so; in Word I get an error message: "An error occurred and this feature is 
>no longer functioning properly. Please run setup and select Repair." The 
>other three programs do not display such a message. I have not installed 
>Powerpoint 2003.
>
> I have tried running Setup from my Office 2003 CD, but I get another error 
> message: "Patch package could not be opened."
>
> I tried running "Detect and Repair" from the Help menu in Excel 2003 and 
> got the same patch package error message.
>
> Is there an easy solution to the problem or is it time to give up on the 
> earlier version? I use Office 2007 much more often than 2003.
>
> I have downloaded the Windows Installed CleanUp utility as suggested in 
> another thread, but I'm not sure whether running that will help.
>
> Bill


Try using Windows Explorer and navigating to the Office Folder and opening 
the .EXE file directly from there.

If it works, then your shortcuts are hosed up. You can make new shortcuts 
from the EXEs.

On 3/10/2010 8:31 AM, Jeff Strickland wrote:
> "Billns"<billns@nsverizon.net>  wrote in message
> news:%23mEqrK7vKHA.4636@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> I have both Office 2003 and Office 2007 installed on my XP Pro machine.
>> Office 2007 is working just fine, but in the past month or so I see the
>> Windows Installer preparing to install message every time I start Word,
>> Excel, Access, or Publishing 2003. All four programs open after a minute or
>> so; in Word I get an error message: "An error occurred and this feature is
>> no longer functioning properly. Please run setup and select Repair." The
>> other three programs do not display such a message. I have not installed
>> Powerpoint 2003.
>>
>> I have tried running Setup from my Office 2003 CD, but I get another error
>> message: "Patch package could not be opened."
>>
>> I tried running "Detect and Repair" from the Help menu in Excel 2003 and
>> got the same patch package error message.
>>
>> Is there an easy solution to the problem or is it time to give up on the
>> earlier version? I use Office 2007 much more often than 2003.
>>
>> I have downloaded the Windows Installed CleanUp utility as suggested in
>> another thread, but I'm not sure whether running that will help.
>>
>> Bill
>
>
> Try using Windows Explorer and navigating to the Office Folder and opening
> the .EXE file directly from there.
>
> If it works, then your shortcuts are hosed up. You can make new shortcuts
> from the EXEs.
>
Thanks for the response, but I still get the Windows Installer start 
screen using this approach.

Bill

On 3/10/2010 9:01 AM, Billns wrote:
> On 3/10/2010 8:31 AM, Jeff Strickland wrote:
>> "Billns"<billns@nsverizon.net> wrote in message
>> news:%23mEqrK7vKHA.4636@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>> I have both Office 2003 and Office 2007 installed on my XP Pro machine.
>>> Office 2007 is working just fine, but in the past month or so I see the
>>> Windows Installer preparing to install message every time I start Word,
>>> Excel, Access, or Publishing 2003. All four programs open after a
>>> minute or
>>> so; in Word I get an error message: "An error occurred and this
>>> feature is
>>> no longer functioning properly. Please run setup and select Repair." The
>>> other three programs do not display such a message. I have not installed
>>> Powerpoint 2003.
>>>
>>> I have tried running Setup from my Office 2003 CD, but I get another
>>> error
>>> message: "Patch package could not be opened."
>>>
>>> I tried running "Detect and Repair" from the Help menu in Excel 2003 and
>>> got the same patch package error message.
>>>
>>> Is there an easy solution to the problem or is it time to give up on the
>>> earlier version? I use Office 2007 much more often than 2003.
>>>
>>> I have downloaded the Windows Installed CleanUp utility as suggested in
>>> another thread, but I'm not sure whether running that will help.
>>>
>>> Bill
>>
>>
>> Try using Windows Explorer and navigating to the Office Folder and
>> opening
>> the .EXE file directly from there.
>>
>> If it works, then your shortcuts are hosed up. You can make new shortcuts
>> from the EXEs.
>>
> Thanks for the response, but I still get the Windows Installer start
> screen using this approach.
>
> Bill

Rather than getting too upset about this problem, I used the Windows 
Installer CleanUp utility to remove the Office 11 installation files, 
then deleted all the Office 11 folders on my disk, then removed the 
shortcut keys for the various Office 2003 components. Office 2007 
insisted on reconfiguring my setup, which took a few minutes and a 
restart, but all is well now. I'll use my laptop if and when I want to 
work with Office 2003 directly.

Thanks to both for your suggestions.

Bill