You receive a "This application requires the Windows installer to run. Would you like to install this service now?" error message when you open a file from an installation source for Office 2000

When you double-click a file such as Excel.exe from an installation source for Office, you receive the following error message: If you click Cancel, nothing happens. If you click OK, you receive the following error message: The Windows Installer service is installed after you receive the first error message, so if you double-click a file such as Excel.exe again, you only receive the second error message.

NOTE: Microsoft Office 2000 has built-in functionality that allows you to get more information about difficult-to-troubleshoot alerts or error messages. If you want to enable this functionality for this and other error messages in Microsoft Office 2000, please download the Microsoft Office 2000 Customizable Alerts file from the Microsoft Office Update Web site at the following address: NOTE: If you reached this article by clicking the Web Info button in an error message, you already have Customizable Alerts enabled.

The Program Is Not Installed By Running Setup

Double-click the Setup.exe file in the root of the installation source to install Office.

NOTE: If you receive the error message in the "Symptoms" section of this article when you double-click a shortcut, it may be that the shortcut was installed by an edition of Office that is no longer installed on your computer. To test this possibility: double-click the program file (for example, Excel.exe), and see whether you continue to receive the error message.