Excel 2003 ... is an update making this product non-functional?
June 19, 2010 7:36 PM   Subscribe

Why doesn't excel 2003 work on my computer anymore?

So here is the scoop... my computer was running fine with the Microsoft office suite (yes, I know there are open source alternatives), but in my line of work office is the standard. Office is what we use.

In any case, I attempted to open a document with excel today and lo and behold the computer prompts "Please wait while your computer loads Office XP Professsional", then I click ok after inserting my office 2003 disk (into an external USB cd rom drive, finally the computer fails to find the necessary file "proret", and I am left with a couple of vague popup messages of nonsense.

Can anyone here help me to figure out the issue? I assume that it is an issue with a recent software update since I cannot think of any other recent change to my computer.

Needless to say, I am very upset with Microsoft for nonsense like this.
posted by candasartan to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)
 
Do you know what the popup messages said? They might lead to a bug report or forums where other people have encountered the same issue.
posted by null terminated at 7:40 PM on June 19, 2010


Response by poster: Yes, it says "The path 'Microsoft Office XP Professional" cannot be found. Verify that you have access to this location and try again, or try to find the installation package 'PRORET.MSI' in a folder from which you can install the product microsoft office XP professional"

and the other one says (when I cancel this whole thing):

"Error 1706. Setup cannot find the required files. Check your connection to the netowork, or CD-ROM drive. For other potential solutions to this problem, see C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\1033\SETUP.HLP"

Thanks in advance for your help!
posted by candasartan at 7:48 PM on June 19, 2010


Wait wait --

Your Office XP Professional installation was missing a component it needed to open a document, so it prompted you for the CD. You responded with an Office 2003 disk. Now your Office is borked?
posted by SirStan at 7:50 PM on June 19, 2010


After scanning through this, I'm tempted to ask if it's the same disk you used to install/upgrade Office and if, odinsdream suggested, it is looking at the right drive.

From the end of the linked thread:
Is it Pro 'Retail', explore the disc, if no proret.msi, you should see
either pro.msi or proplus.msi. One of the three should be there, if its one
of the second two, then you definitely have the wrong disc.

posted by Avelwood at 7:52 PM on June 19, 2010


Response by poster: Update:

Thank you all for your help. I feel like a bit of an idiot. This question is probably not metafilter-worthy given that a reboot solved the problem.

After a restart, the dialog box responded to my office 2003 cd. I don't know how, but that seemed to do the trick. Thank you all for your help.
posted by candasartan at 8:02 PM on June 19, 2010


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