Office repair runs when you start Excel following an interrupted Office service pack installation or Excel update

You install a Microsoft Office service pack or a Microsoft Excel update for one of the programs listed in the "Applies to" section. You then cancel the installation and run Excel. When you do this, you are prompted to run a repair of Office. Additionally, you may receive the following message:Note filename refers to the name of the .msi installation file that corresponds to the program that is installed. For example, Pro11.msi is the file that corresponds to Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition.

The repair of Office requires that you provide the Office CD or that you navigate to another location that contains the appropriate Office Setup files. If you do not complete the repair, Excel does not start.

Note Other Office programs continue to function as expected.

This issue may occur if the Windows Installer service is invoked during an installation and is then interrupted before installation is completed. The Windows Installer service rolls back all changes that occurred to the system during installation, and it may also delete the XLStart folder. When this occurs, Office tries to run a repair the next time that Excel is started. When a repair is run, the original Office Setup files may be required.

Note This issue does not occur when the XLStart folder contains files, and therefore this issue does not cause personal files to be deleted.

To resolve this issue, insert your Office CD into your computer's CD or DVD drive when you are prompted for the Office Setup files. Or, navigate to another location that contains the appropriate Office Setup files, and then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the Office repair process.

To work around this issue, cancel the Office repair operation, and then manually create the XLStart folder.

To manually create the XLStart folder, follow these steps:

1. Right-click Start, and then click Explore to open Windows Explorer.
2. In Windows Explorer, locate the folder that contains your installation of Microsoft Office 2003, of Microsoft Office XP, or of Microsoft Office 2000.
   
   Office 2003 is installed in the following folder:
   drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11
   Note drive is a placeholder for the drive on which Office 2003 is installed.
   
   Office XP is installed in the following folder:
   drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10
   Note drive is a placeholder for the drive on which Office XP is installed.
   
   Office 2000 is installed in the following folder:
   drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office
   Note drive is a placeholder for the drive on which Office 2000 is installed.
3. Select the Office11, Office10, or Office folder, as appropriate for the version of Office that you are running. Then, click File, click New, and then click Folder.
4. Type XLStart, and then press ENTER.
5. Close Windows Explorer, and then try to start Excel again.

Note If you are still prompted to repair Office when you start Excel, the problem is not related to a missing XLStart folder. In this case, you must use the procedure that is described in the "Resolution" section to resolve this issue.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.