[DanTanna]

I'm having a problem whenever I try to open Internet Explorer. A windows installer box opens then a box:
"Microsoft Office 2003 Basic Edition" opens.

Upon closing that box a message appears:

"The feature you are tying to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk that is not available. Insert MS Office basic Edition 2003 and click OK".

New box opens:

"MS Office Basic Edition 2003, Error 1706 setup cannot find the required files." ETC.


I do not have the disk, and have tried the MS knowledge base fixes with no success. Any ideas?

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It seems to me that Internet Explorer might be trying to access a home page that requires Microsoft Office to load. It seems the page may require an element of Office that you do not have installed. Perhaps you can try changing your homepage to something different. Go to tools and internet options. (or right-click on the blue e on your desktop and hit properties) In the general tab type in the address of the new homepage. If you don't know what home page to use, I suggest http://www.google.com because it is usually quick to load and very useful. After you've put in your homepage, click ok. Close internet explorer and try to open it again. If it tries to load any page other than the homepage you selected, then you have what is known as a hijacker. Hijackers can be dealt with by posting in the Malware forum. Other than resetting your homepage, it may also be necessary to set internet explorer to its default settings. The procedure for this differs depending on if you have ie6 or ie7. Please let me know if changing your homepage helps. --Sarah Jane Smith

[Sarah Jane Smith]

It seems to me that Internet Explorer might be trying to access a home page that requires Microsoft Office to load. It seems the page may require an element of Office that you do not have installed. Perhaps you can try changing your homepage to something different. Go to tools and internet options. (or right-click on the blue e on your desktop and hit properties) In the general tab type in the address of the new homepage. If you don't know what home page to use, I suggest http://www.google.com because it is usually quick to load and very useful. After you've put in your homepage, click ok. Close internet explorer and try to open it again. If it tries to load any page other than the homepage you selected, then you have what is known as a hijacker. Hijackers can be dealt with by posting in the Malware forum. Other than resetting your homepage, it may also be necessary to set internet explorer to its default settings. The procedure for this differs depending on if you have ie6 or ie7. Please let me know if changing your homepage helps. --Sarah Jane Smith

[DanTanna]

The homepage is set to www.yahoo.com on IE7. It seems this problem happens whenever a new program is opened. (It also happened when opening AOL). I tried changing the homepage in IE but still have the problem.

[Sarah Jane Smith]

Try setting your internet explorer to factory defaults. Under the internet option general tab click delete the delete all at the bottom of the window that pops up. Then under under the general tab and under browsing history, click settings. Then click view objects. Right-click on each listed item and click delete. Close that screen out and click ok. Under the security tab click "reset all zone to default level". Click apply. Under the privacy tab click default then apply. Under the content tab click clear sll state ssl state. Under Advanced, click restore advanced settings and click apply. Finially, make sure all internect explorer windows are closed then under internet options advanced tab click reset.

[DanTanna]

OK I tried that too but it didn't solve the problem. Any other suggestions? Thanks for the help.

[John Hook]

DanTanna,

My first question would be "When did this problem start to occur and what, if anything, did you install, unistall or CHANGE prior to having this problem?

Did your run Disk Cleanup? This could be ONE possible explanation why IE is trying to invoke some feature of MS Office 2003 where the install files are no longer available.

Do you have the original Office 2003 install disc? If you do then you should be able to put it in your CD/DVD ROM drive and the files that need installing SHOULD be installed.

Generally, I recommend that when people install Office that the elect to do a COMPLETE install and leave copies of ALL the install files on their hard drive. Runing Disk Cleanup can remove the Office install files if you tell it to do so.

It appears as if IE is trying to invoke some component of Office that is no longer installed. When Office is missing an installed feature - it attempts to install/re-install this feature from either the hard drive or CD ROM drive from which Office was originallly installed.

All of that said - you basically NEED the Office 2003 disc. If you don't have it and don't NEED Office 2003, you can completely UNINSTALL Office 2003 via the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. My guess is that you DO require Office.

If you HAVE the Office 2003 disc, you may want to completely UNINSTALL then REINSTALL the ENTIRE Office 2003 suite (select COMPLETE) when you install. Also, always, (provided you have the free disk space availble), elect to copy the Office Setup files to your hard drive. If those files are there, you won't be asked to put in the disk if something related to Office gets messed up or uninstalled.

Check out this link as it may provide additional help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297834

- John

[DanTanna]

Thanks John,

I followed the MS link that you've provided but got no where since I do not have the disk. I've been attempting to clean up some problems on a friends computer that was infected with trojans and spyware. Those issues have been resolved (except for one) and MS Office issue is the one that's the most bothersome. There have been various attempts by others to get this set back in working order so I'm unsure if somewhere along the line a change has been made. I know that recently some of the old users with adminstrative rights have been removed but I'm not sure if that has contriuted to the problem. As I said I don't have the disk so I don't see then uninstall/reinstall as an option. Any other suggestions?

Edited by DanTanna, 12 April 2008 - 06:54 AM.

[John Hook]

DanTanna

You REALLY need that Office 2003 disc to fix this problem. Just about every post I find points to this fact.

You can try doing the following search:

http://www.google.co...B...art=10&sa=N

If you dig around - you may be able to find a solution/workaround to solving this problem WITHOUT having that Office 2003 disc.

- John

[DanTanna]

Thanks John,

I figured that a work around wasn't plausible without the disk. I may just uninstall Office and let my friend worry about reinstalling it.

[Sarah Jane Smith]

You could try disabling all add-ons in internet explorer. If this fixes, then you just have to figure out which add-on was causing the problem and keep it disabled. Go to tools->internet option->program tab Click manage addons. Make sure you select each option in the show dropdown menu and disable them all.

[DanTanna]

I just downloaded Windows Installer 3.1 v2 (3.1.4000.2435) and the problem is seemingly resolved. Now when I open a program the windows installer box flashes for a split second and disappears, then the program opens normally. Hopefully this will be a permanant fix. Thanks you for all of the helpful suggestions.