I'm unable to enter Office 2000. I get an error message "This
application must be installed to run. Please run Setup from the
location where you originally installed the application". I no longer
have my Office 2000 CD. However, I do have an Office 97 CD, but can't
install it. I can't find Office 2000 in the Add/Remove Programs to
remove it. Because of this I can't use Word or Outlook.

Hi valdo-ga,

There are a few options for you to get your copy of Office to work. 

To completely remove Office 2000, you can follow the directions at the
following Microsoft Support Knowledgebase article:

How to remove the Office 2000 CD1
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;219423

To get a NEW CD to be able to install Office 2000, you can contact
Microsoft (assuming you have some sort of proof of ownership) and
request a NEW CD be sent to you. This is typical if you simply lost
your properly licensed and authentic CD. To replace the CD, follow the
directions at the following link:

How to replace lost, broken, or missing Microsoft software or hardware
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=326246

You can also find the Product Support Specialists phone contact information here:
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&c1=505&prid=98533&gprid=36008

They will be able to help you replace the CD.

In the alternative, should you wish to now purchase a copy of Office
2000 (if it was pirated, etc..) I'd highly recommend going with Office
2003. Once you obtain Office 2003, just install it on the computer
with the errors and allow it to upgrade (if offered). It should solve
the problem in one step.

If you have any questions, or any part of this answer is unclear to
you, please ask for clarification prior to rating and thus closing
this question.

Legolas-ga

search used (on http://support.microsoft.com/ )

This application must be installed to run

on Google:

obtain replacement microsoft cd
remove office 2000 without cd

---

Request for Answer Clarification by valdo-ga on 26 Feb 2005 17:20 PST

Thank you for your help. I do not want to request a new Office 2000 CD
from Microsoft, because the PC was given to me. Also, I do not want to
purchase Office 2003. I read the article "How to remove the Office
2000 CDI." I read that I had to backup the registry or I would have
problems. Because I am computer illiterate alot of this is hard to
understand. Also, I read that removing Office removes the Microsoft
Windows Installer (MSI). All this sounds difficult. I'm using Windows
98 and have the CD. I also have an Office 97 CD. Would it be easier to
reinstall Windows 98 and then install Office 97? Again, thank you for
your help.

---

Clarification of Answer by legolas-ga on 26 Feb 2005 18:44 PST

Unfortunately, you will need to follow the directions given here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/219423/EN-US/

to remove Office 2000. However, I can tell you if the computer was
given to you along with the license for the Office 2000 program that
is installed, there are NO PROBLEMS in contacting Microsoft for a
replacement.

If you only reinstalled Windows 98 and installed Office 97, it would
not work at all. You would need to reformat (or create a NEW install
of Windows 98) for your fix to work.

There is another alternative. There are people who are able to do this
type of work remotely over the internet for you. I know there are
people who advertise on eBay for this type of service. They typically
charge per 'incident' i.e. "Remove Office 2000 from my computer" and
are able to do the work for you without actually physically going to
your computer.

For a variety of reasons, at this point I can't give you the actual
link to a person or company that I "recommend", but, I can give you
the search terms to use. You'll probably want to search eBay  (
http://www.ebay.com ) for ads that include the phrase 'fix computer
problems'. I've taken the liberty of doing the search and obtaining
the actual URL you'd need. You can simply click on the link below to
get a listing based on the search terms above:
http://search.ebay.com/fix-computer-problems

Also, there are other companies that offer similar service (however,
ensure that you tell them what the problem is and find out what they'd
charge you before you agree to purchase).

One such company is called "YourTechOnline.com" and can be found here:
http://www.yourtechonline.com/help/problemg.html?fix%20computer%20problems

They are unique as they charge for the time spent doing the sevice:
but, you have to 'guess' ahead of time how many minutes it will
take...

OR, you can always go to the local newspaper and find a computer guy
that's able to come out to you onsite and complete the work. You have
the actual solution in front of you though--it's really all about
getting someone else to follow the directions for you.

As for registry issues, you're right to be afraid of going into the
registry. If you do something wrong, you may need to reinstall Windows
98 as a clean installation. Editing the registry incorrectly can cause
severe problems--including the inability of your computer to boot.
(However, a reinstall and/or reformat will cure that issue, so, it
doesn't actually *damage* the hardware.)

Also, the MSI may need to be reinstalled. You can find the download for that here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=CEBBACD8-C094-4255-B702-DE3BB768148F

Again, please ask for clarification (if needed) prior to rating and
thus closing this question.

Thanks!

Legolas-ga

Manually remove MS Office (I wrote this at another site; am copying
and pasting here):

I was unable to find a MS Technet article that provides this
information, so I'm writing (typing) it down here. Don't hold me
responsible if something gets messed up! Though I assume it cannot get
any worse than it is for you now, and these steps usually resolve the
problem. I also assume that you've performed troubleshooting of the
individual applications. For Word and Excel, go to those pages at
www.theofficeexperts.com and look for the troubleshooting steps. I
also assume your hard drive has been cleaned up. For those
instructions, see www.theofficeexperts.com/cleanyourpc.htm

Errors.

If you get errors during uninstall or reinstall, write down the exact
error message. Go to Microsoft TechNet and type the error message into
the keywords search with your version of Office as the product.

Backup your files.

Type the following into your Find/Search, exactly as it appears (copy
it if you want), find/search the files, and copy them somewhere else
on your PC:

*.doc,*.dot,*.xls,*.xlt,*.ppt,*.pot,*.mdb

Those are Word documents (doc), Word templates (dot), Excel workbooks
(xls), Excel templates (xlt), PowerPoint presentations (ppt),
PowerPoint templates (pot), and Access databases (mdb). If you've
never made your own templates, use just the following because the
default templates will be reinstalled:

*.doc,*.xls,*.ppt,*.mdb

Special Files

*.pst files are Outlook files that contain all of your Outlook
objects. You can also save your mail settings in Outlook: open
Outlook, hit Tools-Accounts, choose an account and *export* it. Do it
for each account. These become *.iaf files.

normal.dot and personal.xls are files that store macros and other
customizations in Word and Excel respectively. You may want to back
these up. Additionally, Excel stores custom toolbars in *.xlb files.

Delete the program files.

Rarely should programs be removed this way. Choosing to remove the
application via the Control Panel is always preferred, but is
sometimes not possible. So we do it this way.

By default, Office is installed to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office.
Using My Computer or Windows Explorer, go to that folder. Delete the
ENTIRE folder.

Remove the program from the Windows registry.

If the program isn't removed from the registry, it often is not fixed
when you reinstall because the registry entries remain corrupt and are
not overwritten on a reinstall.

To manually remove Office from the registry, hit Start-Run and type
*regedit* (no asterisks) and hit Enter. This opens the Windows
registry. Do not do anything except exactly as directed. Browse the
registry similar to browsing in Windows Explorer and go to this
folder:

hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\X.0

The X.0 will be:

8.0 for Office 97
9.0 for Office 2000
10.0 for Office XP
11.0 for Office 2003

If you have more than one, but only want one version of Office
installed now, it is safe to rename the ENTIRE Office folder. If you
are only trying to remove one version, then rename only the number.
So...to rename the Office folder, simply right-click, hit Rename, and
rename it to something like XOffice; or right-click the version number
and rename it; for instance rename 10.0 to Old10.0. Using this method,
you are backing up the old registry files, just to be safe. When
Office is reinstalled, a new 10.0 (or whatever version number) folder
will be created.

Important Note

If you're trying to fix just Word or one of the other applications,
then you can go further into the version folder and rename just the
application folder name. For instance, rename Word to OldWord.
However, you will not want to delete the program files in this case.
See the troubleshooting methods for Word and Excel, which I mentioned
earlier.[i]

Continue with your task.
You should now be in a position to reinstall the program(s).