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When I am running the diagnostics then I am getting "corrupted installation database". I am not able to remove the "Office 2007" or "Office Outlook 2007" because I am getting the same error message every now and then. Can anyone tell me how to fix or repair this issue? The program will work normally, but I am not able to install any updates. Help.
Can you tell us what operating system you are using and which version of Office Suite have you installed in your machine? Is the Office version a Retail copy or is it a OEM copy, or perhaps is it a Trial version?
I ran into the same problem on one of our computers trying to install the Office 2007 Service Pack 2 issued April 28, 2009.
The catch is that you've got to go into the registry at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\ and rename the patch key to patch_old on every entry for an Office 2007 application - Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, Expression Web, etc. The number of entries you'll have to change depends on which Office 2007 programs are installed. The entries to change include those for Microsoft Office Shared Setup Metadata MUI (English) 2007; Microsoft Software Update for Web Folders (English) 2007; Microsoft Office Excel MUI (English) 2007; etc. -- everything involved in Office 2007.
I would strongly suggest that before making these edits, that you export the registry to your desktop as a safety valve and run a system restore from the Control Panel.
After the install works, be sure to reboot. I suspect that you can then delete the patch_old keys, but I am not certain (and after losing so much time to finding this solution, I'm not ready to be a guinea pig right now).
Good luck. I think this should work for you too.
I was also unable to install updates for Office 2007, and got the corrupted database message. The computer was running Windows XP.
Renaming the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\ Patch names for ALL the entries for Office as recommended by dlauber fixed my problem. I was then able to install the Office 2007 Service Pack 2 and other Office 2007 related updates.
Like dlauber, I did not take the time to delete the Patch_old entries. Windows did create new Patch entries.
Thanks to dlauber for posting this fix.