All Office Icons Missing

Recently all of my Office 2003 Icons as well as Quicktime/Itunes, Adobe
Reader and Ad Aware suddenly disappeared and were replaced with generic
icons. When I start an Office program I get the Windows Installer screen,
then the error message:

An error occured and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please
run Setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application.

After I click OK the program comes up and functions fine. When I try to run
Setup, I get this message:

This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package
exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Patch Package.

I was able to restore the other programs by re-installing them. Would I be
creating more problems, or loose my files, by re-installing Office? Any
help would be appreciated.

Repairing Office does not impact on data files, a backup of data, which you
should have anyway, is allways wise

"Ed Black" <EdBlack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E5CEAA9F-A96F-4D7B-AE8A-DA41D127EF89@microsoft.com...
> Recently all of my Office 2003 Icons as well as Quicktime/Itunes, Adobe
> Reader and Ad Aware suddenly disappeared and were replaced with generic
> icons. When I start an Office program I get the Windows Installer screen,
> then the error message:
>
> An error occured and this feature is no longer functioning properly.
> Please
> run Setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application.
>
> After I click OK the program comes up and functions fine. When I try to
> run
> Setup, I get this message:
>
> This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package
> exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
> verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Patch Package.
>
> I was able to restore the other programs by re-installing them. Would I
> be
> creating more problems, or loose my files, by re-installing Office? Any
> help would be appreciated.

If you decide to use the following utility, be certain you have your product
key.
You receive the "This patch package could not be opened" error message in an
Office program
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=295823

You can find your key by running the Belarc Adviser
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html


--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"Ed Black" <EdBlack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E5CEAA9F-A96F-4D7B-AE8A-DA41D127EF89@microsoft.com...
> Recently all of my Office 2003 Icons as well as Quicktime/Itunes, Adobe
> Reader and Ad Aware suddenly disappeared and were replaced with generic
> icons. When I start an Office program I get the Windows Installer screen,
> then the error message:
>
> An error occured and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please
> run Setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application.
>
> After I click OK the program comes up and functions fine. When I try to run
> Setup, I get this message:
>
> This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package
> exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
> verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Patch Package.
>
> I was able to restore the other programs by re-installing them. Would I be
> creating more problems, or loose my files, by re-installing Office? Any
> help would be appreciated.

Mary,

Thanks! That worked perfectly.

Ed

"Mary Sauer" wrote:

> If you decide to use the following utility, be certain you have your product
> key.
> You receive the "This patch package could not be opened" error message in an
> Office program
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=295823
>
> You can find your key by running the Belarc Adviser
> http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
>
>
> --
> Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
> http://office.microsoft.com/
> http://msauer.mvps.org/
> news://msnews.microsoft.com
>
> "Ed Black" <EdBlack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:E5CEAA9F-A96F-4D7B-AE8A-DA41D127EF89@microsoft.com...
> > Recently all of my Office 2003 Icons as well as Quicktime/Itunes, Adobe
> > Reader and Ad Aware suddenly disappeared and were replaced with generic
> > icons. When I start an Office program I get the Windows Installer screen,
> > then the error message:
> >
> > An error occured and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please
> > run Setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application.
> >
> > After I click OK the program comes up and functions fine. When I try to run
> > Setup, I get this message:
> >
> > This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package
> > exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
> > verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Patch Package.
> >
> > I was able to restore the other programs by re-installing them. Would I be
> > creating more problems, or loose my files, by re-installing Office? Any
> > help would be appreciated.
>
>
>

Hey, glad to help, thanks for posting back, it is appreciated.

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"Ed Black" <EdBlack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:45618DB5-6A68-4C18-BB95-E1E56D968F03@microsoft.com...
> Mary,
>
> Thanks! That worked perfectly.
>
> Ed
>
> "Mary Sauer" wrote:
>
>> If you decide to use the following utility, be certain you have your product
>> key.
>> You receive the "This patch package could not be opened" error message in an
>> Office program
>> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=295823
>>
>> You can find your key by running the Belarc Adviser
>> http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
>> http://office.microsoft.com/
>> http://msauer.mvps.org/
>> news://msnews.microsoft.com
>>
>> "Ed Black" <EdBlack@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:E5CEAA9F-A96F-4D7B-AE8A-DA41D127EF89@microsoft.com...
>> > Recently all of my Office 2003 Icons as well as Quicktime/Itunes, Adobe
>> > Reader and Ad Aware suddenly disappeared and were replaced with generic
>> > icons. When I start an Office program I get the Windows Installer screen,
>> > then the error message:
>> >
>> > An error occured and this feature is no longer functioning properly.
>> > Please
>> > run Setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application.
>> >
>> > After I click OK the program comes up and functions fine. When I try to
>> > run
>> > Setup, I get this message:
>> >
>> > This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package
>> > exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
>> > verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Patch Package.
>> >
>> > I was able to restore the other programs by re-installing them. Would I be
>> > creating more problems, or loose my files, by re-installing Office? Any
>> > help would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>>

[mccarw]

If you used any of the Cloning programs to clone your boot disk to a new drive there is one folder you need to copy over manually after the cloning.

It is the C:\Windows\installer directory. It will not be visible unless you turn on view protected system files in Tools->Folder Options->View

Copy the whole directory over or else you will find that some of your icon types (particularly MS Office) will have disappeared and you cannot re-install / repair (because setup sees there is an installation but there is no installer files there so it crashes)

[garion77]

The Cloning option is what I did recently and mccarw's advice got my icons back on the air.
Office icons were the noticeable ones missing, but there were handfuls of others too.

Thanks!