OFFXP: Office Stops During Setup: Troubleshooting Steps on Windows XP

This article describes how to troubleshoot when you are installing Microsoft Office XP on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP (Home or Professional), and Setup appears to stop responding (hang) without apparent errors.

Make Sure That Setup Actually Stopped Responding

Setup may appear to stop, but in fact it is continuing slowly. Wait longer (about 20 minutes) before you end Setup.

Open the Windows Task Manager by right-clicking an empty space on the taskbar, and then clicking Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, and then examine the CPU for the multiple Msiexec.exe entries. If any Msiexec.exe process is using a relatively high CPU percentage, this indicates that Setup is not stopped or hung.

Before you conclude that Setup is stopped, examine the CD-ROM drive light and hard disk light for activity. Also, in the Windows Task Manager, verify whether the Office Setup program appears as "Not Responding" in the Status column on the Applications tab of the Windows Task Manager dialog box.

Verify That the CD-ROM Is Clean and Unscratched

If the problem occurs while you are installing from a CD-ROM, verify that the CD-ROM you are using is clean. You can wipe the CD-ROM with a soft, lint-free cloth. Also ensure that there are no large scratches on the CD-ROM. If the CD-ROM is damaged and unreadable, error messages may appear during installation.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Uninstall a Beta Version of Office XP

If a beta version of Office XP was installed earlier, the beta version must be uninstalled before you install the final version of Office XP. Although Office XP Setup prompts you to uninstall such a prerelease version, the removal process may not be completed successfully. To uninstall a beta version of Office XP, follow these steps:

1. In Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs.
2. In the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, select the Office XP entry (for example, select Microsoft Office XP Professional).
3. Click Remove.
4. Follow the directions provided in the dialog boxes.

After the beta version is uninstalled, run the Setup program for Office XP.

Verify the Permissions

Make sure that the correct permissions are set for your account. To determine whether you have the correct permissions to install, run, and use the Office program that you are having problems with, log on to the computer as an administrator. When you log on to Windows as an administrator, you have full read/write permission to all folders and files on the computer, as well as to the registry. If the problem does not occur after you log on as an administrator, verify the permissions of your user account.

NOTE: The Local Administrator account is not the same as a user account that has administrator permissions. The Local Administrator account is the system account that is used to set up the operating system.

Test the User Profile

Sometimes, a user's specific information may be damaged, but other users on the same computer may have no problem. To determine whether this is the case, sign on as a new user or create a new user, and then test.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Use the Setup Log Files

When you install Office XP, Setup automatically creates log files in your TEMP folder. The log files have names similar to the following:

In the preceding table, <edition> is the edition of Office XP that you are installing. For example, these files may be: The #### characters in the log file names are numbers beginning with 0001. These numbers increment by 1 each time that you run Setup. Therefore, the log file with the highest number is the most recent log file.

Verbose logging is enabled by default in Office XP; therefore, the Windows Installer log files contain much information about events that occur during installation. This file may be requested if you contact Microsoft Technical Support for further troubleshooting.

For additional information about creating and reading Office Setup log files, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information about customizing Office Setup log files, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Close Unnecessary Memory-Resident Programs

Programs that run in the background in memory are called terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs. For example, these programs may be virus protection software, utility programs, print manager programs, or screen savers. To determine whether a terminate-and-stay-resident program is running, follow these steps:

1. To display the Windows Task Manager, right-click an empty space on the taskbar, and then click Task Manager.
2. On the Applications tab, close any unknown or unnecessary programs by clicking the program to select it, and then clicking End Task.
3. Repeat step 2 until you close all unknown or unnecessary programs.

Some TSRs may be loaded into memory but may not appear on the Task list on the Applications tab. These TSRs are loaded via the Windows registry.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To see what programs are loaded via the registry, follow these steps:

1. Click Start and then click Run. In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK. Select the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
   This key lists all programs that are started when Windows is started. Programs that are started automatically can cause problems with Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs that is listed in this registry key.
2. Select the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
   Entries in this key are run once when the computer is restarted, and then the system deletes them. These programs can cause problems in Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs that is listed in this registry key.
3. Select the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
   This key lists all programs that start when Windows XP is loaded. The only program that is required in this key is System Tray (Systray.exe). Other programs that are loading can cause problems with Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs that is listed in this registry key.
4. Select the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
   Entries in this key are run once when the computer is restarted, and then the system deletes them. These programs can cause problems in Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs that is listed in this registry key.

Check the TEMP Folder

An invalid TEMP environment variable can cause errors with the Office Setup program. This section describes how to verify that your temporary folders are correctly set up.

First, you must determine the location of your Windows TEMP folder and verify the validity of your TEMP environment variables. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
2. If you are using Classic View, in Control Panel, double-click the System icon. If you are using Category View, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click the System icon. When the System Properties dialog box appears, click Environment Variables on the Advanced tab.
3. In the Environment Variables dialog box, look under User variables for user name for the columns Variable and Value. The TMP and TEMP environmental settings appear under these columns.
   
   Examples of valid settings are as follows:
   TEMP = C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
   -or-
   TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
   If a TEMP (or TMP) variable entry is not listed, follow these steps:
   1. Click New. The New User Variable dialog box appears.
   2. In the Variable Name box, type TEMP.
   3. Press the TAB key to move to the Variable Value box, and then type C:\WINDOWS\TEMP (or any other valid path and folder name).
   4. Click Set or OK to add these values to the User variables for user name box.
4. Click OK to close the Environment Variables dialog box, click OK to close the System Properties dialog box, and then close Control Panel.
5. Start Windows Explorer and look for a folder with the same name and location as that listed in the User variables for user name box. If you find that the folder indicated by the environment variable does not exist, either open Windows Explorer and create a new TEMP folder in that location, or repeat steps 1 through 3 to update the TEMP environment variable to a valid location.
   
   NOTE: This step is important, because an invalid TEMP setting can have serious effects on Microsoft Windows and the Office Setup program.
6. Verify that the drive that contains the TEMP folder has sufficient free disk space. Generally, the amount of available free space on this drive should be at least 50 MB. Also verify that you have read/write permission to this folder.
7. Verify that the TEMP folder is empty. If files exist, you can delete any *.tmp files that are not currently in use. These files usually have a modified date that is earlier than the current session of Windows. It is recommended that you use the Disk Cleanup Utility to remove these unused temporary files (see the "Disk Cleanup Utility" section later in this article).
   
   NOTE: You should quit all Windows programs before you delete any *.tmp files, because programs that are running create and use temporary files.

NOTE: You should periodically remove any leftover temporary files on your system.

Disk Cleanup Utility

In Windows, you can delete many unused or temporary files with the Disk Cleanup Utility. Disk Cleanup searches your computer's hard disk and then shows you temporary files, Internet cache files, and unnecessary program files that you can safely delete. You can direct Disk Cleanup to delete some or all of those files. To open the utility, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.

Check the Hard Disk for Disk Errors and Fragmentation

Use the Disk Defragmenter program to check the hard disk volume for lost clusters and other master file tables (MFT) errors. You can also test the integrity of the hard disk's ability to read and write data and then repair most errors. To run the Disk Defragmenter program, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
2. Click the drive that you want to check for errors, and then click Analyze.
3. When this process is completed, click Defragment.

Scan the Computer for Viruses

If a virus is present on your computer and it has damaged any files, problems can occur when you run Setup. Scan the hard disk and floppy disks with virus detection software that is updated with a very recent virus signature file. If the antivirus software detects a virus on your computer, clean or remove the virus before you attempt to run Office Setup again.

NOTE: Do not run antivirus terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs while you run the Office Setup program. Instead, run these utilities before you run Office Setup, and then disable or turn off the utilities until Setup is completed.

Clean Start Windows XP

To disable common startup programs, drivers, and system settings that may conflict with the Office Setup program, you can clean start (clean boot) Windows.

For more information about clean starting Windows XP by using the System ConfigurationUtility, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Run Setup from a Flat File

If enough space is available on the hard disk, make a copy of the contents of the Office XP CD-ROM by following these steps:

1. Create a new folder at the root of a hard disk volume, and then name it "Flatfile"; for example, C:\Flatfile.
2. Copy the entire contents of Office CD-ROM 1 into the Flatfile folder. In Windows Explorer, click the CD-ROM icon or DVD-ROM icon, and then click Select All on the Edit menu. To paste all the files into the new folder, drag the items that you selected on the right side of the Explorer window into the Flatfile folder on the left.

If there are errors during the copy process, this can indicate problems with the CD-ROM (media), a dirty CD-ROM drive, or a problem with your hard disk drive.

For additional information about hard disk requirements, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: You can use this flat file to install Office while in Windows Safe mode (see the "Start Windows in Safe Mode" section later in this article). If installing from a flat file fails, it is still possible there is a problem with the CD-ROM, because a damaged file can be copied without generating an error message. Installing from this flat file while in Safe mode is necessary in order to determine whether startup items or services are conflicting with the Setup program.

Start Windows in Safe Mode

WARNING: Starting your computer in Safe mode disables the Windows File Protection (WFP) feature for the session in which you use Safe mode. After you install Office in Safe mode, you should restart Windows to ensure that you are in "normal mode" as you continue operating your computer.

Windows has a built-in troubleshooting mode called Safe mode. Safe mode bypasses startup files and uses only basic system drivers, including basic networking and system services. When you start Windows in Safe mode, Windows uses only the mouse, keyboard, and standard video graphics adapter (VGA) device drivers and those system services that are necessary to start. This makes Safe mode useful for isolating and resolving error conditions that are caused by startup programs, services, and Windows-based drivers. Windows also has troubleshooting features that may help you identify the problem.

To start Windows in Safe mode and make the additional troubleshooting features available, follow these steps for your system configuration:

1. While restarting your computer, press F8 to enter Troubleshooting mode.
   
   Multiple boot:
   
   If your Windows XP-based computer is set up for multiple boot, the boot-up process stops at a menu titled Please Select the Operating System to start. At this point, press F8.
   
   Non-multiple boot:
   
   If your Windows XP-based computer is not set up for multiple boot, press F8 when the Starting Windows progress bar appears at the bottom of the screen.
   
   NOTE: Be prompt; you may have only a few seconds to press F8.
2. Safe mode is selected by default. Press ENTER, and then you see the words "Safe Mode" appear in the four corners of your screen.
3. After Windows XP finishes starting in Safe mode, run the Office Setup program.

For additional information about running Windows XP in Safe mode, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Check for Software Updates

Outdated and incompatible software also can cause Setup problems. Check with the manufacturer of your computer for various software updates, such as BIOS updates, OEM Windows updates, and hardware driver updates (CD-ROM, video, and printer drivers).

Reinstall Windows in a New Folder

Use this step after you try all other troubleshooting methods listed earlier in this article. For testing purposes, you can install Windows into a different folder from your original Windows installation and then install Office to that environment. This is called making a "parallel" copy, because your original installation of Windows is not entirely removed. Instead, Windows is installed alongside your original copy.

If installing Office this way is successful and you decide to keep the new installation of Windows, you must reinstall all Windows-based programs under the new Windows installation.

For more information about installing a parallel copy of Windows, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Check Hardware

If you try all other troubleshooting steps and you still receive error messages, one or more devices in your computer hardware may be incompatible with Windows or may be damaged. To identify a problem with your computer hardware, contact your computer vendor.