office 2007 :The windows installer service cannot update one or more protected windows

I tried to install office 2007 enterprise on xp sp2 with all updates
and ie7 installed. i had office 2003 working fine.
got the ==The windows installer service cannot update one or more
protected windows
files ==error and office 2007 rolled back.
naturally this totally screwed outlook 2003. i had to reinstall office
2003 to fix the mapi32.dll error everybody gets when this happens. that
worked.
then i uninstalled office 2003 completely and tried again to install
office 2007. again it did not work.

i tried it several times and sometimes it just said installation error
without the The windows installer service cannot update one or more
protected windows files error message

it looked to me like the computer was trying to access the internet, or
my network, since the icons of two computers in the system tray was
flashing, so i disconnected from my LAN. that did not help either.

from other posts i see The windows installer service cannot update one
or more protected windows
files is a common error with people installing office 2000 on 'certain
oem versions of xp'
the fix is supposedly copying a bunch of files from the office cd to
c:\program files\common files\ms shared\web server extensions\40\bin
now i observe that i have NO FILES in 40\bin at all

is the solution as simple as this???

i note that some other people have successfully installed this same
version of office 2007 as i have on their computers so i don't think
there is a problem with it

any thoughts?

As a guess, the error is from hitting something in the 2003 (or earlier) 'left overs' rather than in the 2007 product.

If you look in Add/Remove Programs are there any 2000, Office XP, 2002, 2003 products listed? Do you have the FrontPage Server
extensions in play? Is IIS running when you do the install?

These errors (often error 1931) should be giving you the name of the file in either the error message or in the log files you can
locate by typing %temp% {enter} in Start=>Run

thanks very much for your help. i see your name all over google trying
to put out fires with this installation of office 2007.

as i said, i tried installing WITH office 2003 on the computer and
after totally removing it. i do not have IIS running or even allowed on
my computer, same goes for front page.

i did look at the event viewer. it names a file called fpault.dll as
failing the protected files check

this file was not on my computer at all. supposed to be in c:\program
files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin

the reason it was not on my computer may well have been because i used
nlite to modify my windows xp installation on this computer to get rid
of some of the crap

by a miracle, i found this fpault.dll file on the original xp cd,
hiding in I386\FP40EXT.CAB
which is not a place i would ordinarily be looking

i extracted it and copied it to c:\program files\common files\microsoft
shared\web server extensions\40\bin

like the red sea parting office 2007 rolled on to install itself.

i have searched everywhere for a fix to my problem, which does not seem
to be widespread, and nowhere has this solution been stated. so i hope
it may help others.

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. I had this same problem as
you did, and I tried so hard but could not solve it. when I did a
search on line help and ran into your post, I did exactly like you did
and Off-2007 Enterprise installed and working perfectly.
Thanks again.

[Leyland]

A work colleague of mine has had this problem and asked if I could help as his windows was pre-installed and therefore did not have the disc. I have searched my disc, following the path described above and can only find 'f4pault.dll' in that folder.

I also had a look in my C:/ with the same results. Do you mean this instead?

I have installed Office 2007 with no problem so I was wondering about this problem.

[Woebegone]

I'm having the same problem with my Office 2007 installation, but I'm sorry, the solution you're describing goes way over my head. Could someone please explain this in plain English?

The good folks at MS were content to take my money, but have proved less than helpful in resolving my problem.

Any help you could offer would be much appreciated.

Thanx

[davesc3]

As I had the same install issue with a clean XP install then office 2007. This guide solved the protected file install error. The only change is that the correct dll is fp4ault.dll

1. From Windows install disk, or c:\i386 that may have been set up in an OEM install, open (Double click) on the FP40EXT.CAB file. It should open.

2. find fp4ault.dll in the list

3. double click and select extract to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin

4. Restart the 2007 office install

[recentcoin]

The sad part is that MicroSUCK has to be aware that this is an issue and it's about 35 seconds to write 2 lines of code to add to the install or to push out an "update" that will put the file in the right place.

I have an Enterprise version of XP with SP3 slipstreamed and I cannot get Office to install. I have been pulling my hair out.

[Tsunami]

This file has to do with Frontpage Extensions, I have not used nLite in quite a while but I believe it is possible to leave these files intact.

I had this same error and just used the fpault.dll file from another XP system (seemed the quickest solution).

One thing to be aware of is Windows may ask you to replace the files that were modified (it detected the new files) and will ask for the Windows XP CD; just hit cancel (you know what you're doing, MS doesn't!).

nLite was used for the ISO I deployed

[pzastavny]

Hi All!
I had the same install issue with office 2007 because I modified my windows xp installation. I didn't find fp4ault.dll in my FP40EXT.CAB. I have windows XP SP3. I extracted to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin all DLL files. Thanks all of you for help.

[akarbakar]

Thanks so much man, you are the man! I am so appreciative that I registered to say thanks.

I was installing TinyXP into a VirtualMachine, and it didn't even come with that file anywhere on the iso .

Thanks man!

It worked. I was very much annoyed with this error.

[arpit.mathur26]

Thanks a lot. The solution seems to work.
It's a shame for microsoft though. I mean their own product incompatible with their own OS, a freaking disgrace.

My file had a slightly different name. For XP Professional the file was fp4autl.dll. I had just started searching MS knowledge base, but nothing
obvious came up, even when I had the error number.

Greatest thread ever. This thing basically made my day. Registered just to say that.

[ClayN]

I recently did a fresh install of XP and had the same problem as the OP. I had installed IIS, but did not install FrontPage extensions. Once I added them, the install of Office went fine. To do so go to:
Control Panel =>
Add/Remove Programs =>
Add/Remove Windows Components =>
IIS => (Details Button) =>
Check the box next to FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions. OK on through.

I'm not sure if this solution is any different from the solutions others have posted. Part of me thinks that if Office is looking for the FP extensions they must be used for something, likely related to Microsoft Groove.

[ingo1234567]

I too regestered for this site, just to say thanks. midnight on a Friday night and this problem had been stopping me go home to my finance´..... Man I am so chuffed!
Thanks thanks thanks

[d4rk_kn1ght]

After reading your post, office installed successfully, THANK YOU :). The file i found in FP40EXT.CAB was not fp4ault.dll it was fp4autl.dll

also registered to show appreciation.