Office SP3 Problem PRORET.MSI cannot be found

I tried installing the Office SP3 for my Office XP Small Business edition,
but an error message said PRORET.MSI cannot be found. I searched both my
hard drive and the Office disk, but could not find this file. I checked on
the Office advice page, and they said to run the "Detect and Repair" wizard.
But this did not fix the problem as it occured the same during the next
attempt to install. Not sure why this file does not exist yet I am being
asked for it. Any ideas?

It should be on your Office XP CD but if it's not, are you using an upgrade Office XP CD?

You may be able to install via the full install download from the below site
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
OfficeXpSp3-kb832671-fullfile-enu.exe 57.5 meg.

Download the file and see if it will install without asking for the CD.

PRORET.MSI is from Office XP Professional. Did Office XP Small
Business come preinstalled on your computer by the computer
manufacturer? Sometimes, the Office XP version used by the
computer manufacturer to image your hard drive is not the same as
the Office XP version that's on your CD. If this is the problem,
then the usual solution is to uninstall the existing Office XP,
reinstall Office XP from your CD, and then apply SP3.

I installed my Office XP Small Business Edition on my computer. If
"garfield-n-odie" is correct and PRORET.MSI is part of Office XP
Professional, then it is as if my Office XP Small Business Edition seems to
be automatically trying to take the web update files destined for Office XP
Professional. This is probably why the 14+ Mb file the automatic web update
downloaded cannot find the PRORET.MSI file. It should be looking for the
updates for Office XP Small Business Edition instead.

I will try the download tonight (modem...57 Mb will take a while) and try
tomorrow night.

It's not that the update file is any different. The reason you are being
prompted for the PRORET.MSI file is because your registry has information
that suggests that the Office XP Professional Retail edition is installed.

Obviously the notes about what your vendor shipped, and whether it did or
did not come with the proper media are items to resolve.... but it's also
possible that at some point your Office XP SBE was 'updated', or that =some=
Office XP Pro CD was used to 'repair' or 'reinstall' or 'upgrade' the Office
XP SBE preinstalled by the vendor, thus making the system now think that you
have the Professional Edition installed.

If you have the Office XP Small Business Edition media, and your system is
licensed for Office XP Small Business Edition, then to 'repair' this desire
for the PRORET.MSI file you will need to completely uninstall the Office XP
currently there. Go to Add/Remove Programs, and look for Office XP
Professional. (If you have Office XP SBE installed, ARP will say "Office XP
Small Business Edition".) It's also possible that you have BOTH editions
installed -- I have seen this happen. This can occur because Office XP SBE
does not contain Access 2002. In an effort to get Access 2002, it gets
installed from an Office XP Pro CD. If you have both installed, you'll need
to uninstall Office XP Professional Edition, and then do a /repair/
installation of Office XP Small Business Edition. At that point, you should
be able to install SP3, and it will prompt you for the correct MSI file.

I downloaded the full 57.5 meg file suggested by TaurArian and that worked.
It completed the update to Office XP SP3.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
OfficeXpSp3-kb832671-fullfile-enu.exe 57.5 meg.

You are completely correct. After seeing your post, I realized my wife
purchased an Office XP Professional package while going through school since
she needed Access for her homework. I opted for the custom installation on
this CD and only installed Access from the Office XP Professional CD, but
automatic update thought the entire bundle of Office XP was the Professional
version just because of this Access installation.

And you are also correct, both Office XP Small Business and Office XP
Professional show up in the Add/Remove programs. This is most likely due to
the Access installation.

Since TaurArian's suggestion of downloading the complete update worked,
everything is fixed.

Why can't the Office XP CD be accessed?

Is this the original CD or a backup copy of the original? If a copy, try the original to see if you get better results.

[uniquebobc]

[font="Arial"][size="4"]I have not been so lucky. I have MS OFFICE XP Professional SP3. I have tried restoring my system. I have tried downloading and installing Windows Installer 3.1. I have looked everywhere on my computer for the "missing file." All to no avail. The OFFICE XP CD cannot be accessed.

What is happening to me:

Every time I lauch MS EXCEL, it wants to reinstall OFFICE XP. Every time I try accessing MS EXCEL HELP, it wants to re-install Office XP. I cancel out since I cannot do so, and I cannot use HELP. I cannot use HELP in any Office application. I still seem to be able to use all functions of the MS OFFICE XP applications, but cannot use HELP.

I tried to "DETECT & REPAIR," but OFFICE goes through the install procedure that fails every time because of the missing "PRORET.MSI" file.

I have tried everything I have found in forums, on Microsoft, and everywhere else I can think of! Will I have to give up and buy a new version of MS OFFICE Pro?

HELP!

Actually, I misspoke. It will not autorun when trying to Detect and Repair. I can view the contents in Windows Explorer. That is how I know that the *.msi file is not on the CD--it does not show when I look for it using Windows Explorer.

[AlphaZeta]

I found this forum in order to get rid of the same "Microsoft Office XP" dialog box that starts everytime I startup my computer and everytime I try to launch any of my MS Office programs.

However, I do not think this has anything to do with which version of MS Office XP retail or whatever, because this happened to my brand new netbook, only one week after I had loaded my MS Office XP version 2002.

The problem IMMEDIATELY began after I unsuccessfully tried to log onto the internet at a cafe while traveling in a foreign country. I previously installed MS Office from this same properly licensed software on 4 other laptops and have never encountered this dialog box before.

Because I was traveling, I didn't have my install disks available. Now that I'm home, I've not yet tried to "insert the installation package" to my CD drive, nor have I downloaded the 57 MB upgrade package -- because according to what i've read on the various forums, none of these seem to solve the problem.

Could this be some kind of bug in MS Office that was triggered when I was trying to reach the internet on a foreign language website?

I am tempted to remove MS Office from my system and reinstall. Will report if that solves the issue.

See the following conversation about this issue

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...185721033.aspx