Unknown Error installing KB972581

Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2

Repeated attempts to install

Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (KB972581)

have failed with the following message:

Code 8007006E unknown error

My Office version is 2003 Professional. When I first got this computer it
came with a trial version of Office 2007 which interfered with my attempts
to install my own copy of Office 2003. I had to come here for help in
eliminating that problem, and everything has been fine - until today.

My own guess is that the reason the update is failing is because Office
2007 is not the version that's installed here, but I now have a permanent
Windows Update icon in my system tray telling me there's an update to
install.

If I am correct and the reason for the failed install is that Office 2007
is not installed here, then how can I make this update go away?

To further confuse the issue, in looking at my update history I find
several other Security Updates for Office 2007 which have apparently been
successfully installed. This one seems to have been the first one that
failed.

Previous Security Updates for Office 2007 were successfully installed on
June 5, 9, and 22.

Numerous updates for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Junk Mail Filter have
been successfully installed in the past, as have a number of updates for
individual products in the Office 2007 suite.

Tom

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I have Office 2003 installed and no Office 2007, but my updates to 2007
have always been successful - so far, including yesterday :-)

I have formed the opinion that the Office 2007 updates are needed for the
add-on to 2003 that reads documents of the 2007 format.

All of which implies to me that you have some more subtle problem, e.g., a
corrupt file or even a bad download of the update.

Exactly what the error say's. You can hide the error by selecting "Hide Update."
Expand the Update and select at the bottom

8007006E ERROR_OPEN_FAILED
The system cannot open the device or file specified.

As I indicated before, I bought this computer new and it came with a 30-day
trial of Office 2007 already installed.

I attempted to uninstall Office 2007 before installing 2003, but the
uninstall did not work. I then installed 2003 anyway, and discovered I had
two versions of each Office application: one for 2003 and one for 2007.

I came here for advice and was directed to a Microsoft web page with
detailed instructions which led to a VERY lengthy process of uninstalling a
number of hidden services and/or applications that were not apparent from
the Programs and Features uninstall page. The process involved manually
uninstalling a number of items and removing registry keys. I saved each
registry key before deleting it and still have 25 .reg files saved from
that operation.

One of the hidden applications would not uninstall, and I believe it's
still lurking somewhere in the background. I'm attempting to reconstruct
the steps I used to access it before.