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Unversioned files are not updated after you install an Office 2000 service pack, hotfix, or patch

Article ID: 331976 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q331976

SYMPTOMS

When you apply an Office 2000 service pack, patch, or hotfix, the service pack, patch, or hotfix may not update some unversioned Office 2000 files on your hard disk as intended. Unversioned files in Office 2000 use the following file name extensions:

.aw
.chm
.lex
.mda
.mde
.ppa
.xla
acwz*.mde

NOTE: Unversioned files are files that do not use version numbers.

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CAUSE

This issue occurs if the unversioned file (or files) is modified in some way. For example, some files are automatically modified by Office 2000 when you use a feature of an Office 2000 program. Windows Installer treats these files as user-modified unversioned files.

When a file is modified, the Modified date of the file appears as a later date than the Created date. (To view the date properties of a file, right-click a file, click Properties, and then click the General tab.) Windows Installer compares the Created date with the Modified date of unversioned files to determine whether it is safe to update the existing file with the version that is included in the service pack, patch, or hotfix. This mechanism is designed to make sure that you do not overwrite any user-modified unversioned files on the hard disk.

As a result, when you install an Office 2000 service pack, hotfix, or patch that contains updated versions of the modified unversioned file, Windows Installer detects the modified version of the file on the hard disk, and does not update the file with the version that is included in the service pack, hotfix, or patch.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, locate and rename the unversioned Office 2000 files on your hard disk that are affected by the Office 2000 update that you want to apply. Do this before you apply the update. After you rename the files, apply the update. When you do this, Windows Installer correctly detects and installs the updated version of the files.

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you rename only the unversioned Office 2000 files that are included in the service pack, hotfix, or patch that you want to apply. Before you perform this procedure, see the documentation that accompanies the service pack, hotfix, or patch to determine the unversioned files that are updated by the service pack, hotfix, or patch. For a list of file name extensions used by Office 2000 unversioned files, see the "Symptoms" section of this article.

To rename unversioned Office 2000 files, follow these steps.

NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

Click Start, and then click Search.
Click All files and folders.
In the Look in box, specify the Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1033 folder, where Drive is the drive on which Office 2000 is installed.

NOTE: This is the default installation location.
In the All or part of the file name box, type the names of the unversioned files that you want to rename, and then click Search.
In the search results window, right-click each file that is found, and then click Rename.
Rename each file by using the .old extension. To do this, replace the existing extension by typing old after the period (".") in the file name, and then press ENTER.
Install the Office 2000 service pack, hotfix, or patch.

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MORE INFORMATION

You can also use the rename (or ren) command to rename the files from the command prompt. To rename files by using the rename command:

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type cmd, and then click OK.
Switch to the Drive on which Office is installed, and then change to the following Office folder: Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1033. To do this, type the following lines, and press ENTER after each line (where Drive is the drive letter on which Office 2000 is installed):
Drive:
cd \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\1033
Rename the file or files. To do this, type the following, and then press ENTER (where OldFileName is the original name of the file and NewFileName is the new file name that contains the .old extension):
rename OldFileName NewFileName
You can use the * wildcard character in the OldFileName or NewFileName parameters. For example, to rename the three unversioned Microsoft Access 2000 files -- Acwztool.mde, Acwzmain.mde, and Acwzlib.mde -- type the following, and the press ENTER:
rename acwz*.mde acwz*.old

For additional information about how to obtain the latest Office 2000 service pack, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

276367

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/276367/EN-US/ )

OFF2000: How to Obtain the Latest Office 2000 Service Pack

For additional information about Office 2000 hotfixes, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

320519

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320519/EN-US/ )

OFF: Hotfixes Require the Latest Office Service Pack

For more information about Windows Installer technology, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:

Overview of Windows Installer
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370566.aspx

(http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370566.aspx)

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