MS Office SP2 Update Failures

I’ve switched over my computers to Microsoft Update which provides service releases for both Windows and Office instead of the plain old Windows Update. I’m also a heavy user of registry cleaners like WinASO, Registry Mechanic, and CCleaner. I’ve found that with regular computer maintenance that a Windows installation can last a very long time. However, one problem I’ve had is with failures of Microsoft Office Updates. Usually they fail with a message reading:

The update cannot be installed.

or

Installation Unsuccessful

Both of these messages can serve to be a huge annoyance not only because the only thing I hate more than wasting time waiting for non-automated updates to apply is to try to troubleshoot why updates didn’t apply in the first place. However, there is a solution!

The problem lies squarely on registry cleaners removing certain “Path” statements to where the update program can find the installation files. The solution is presented in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #884298. In a nutshell, the fix is simply replacing Sting Keys that were originally removed in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\
Office\
Delivery\
SourceEngine\
Downloads\
“download_code”\ (series of numbers representing the Office install)
Sources\
“various IDs representing installed Office apps”\
Path (type: String Key) with a value of
“either D:\ (i.e. CD\DVD drive path) or C:\MSOCache\ALLUSE~1\”download_code” (if you copied the install to the hard drive)

That’s it, the updates should apply then without problems.

January 9, 2006 | Filed Under Tech/Gadgets 

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