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

I had bought a new copy of office 2007 which i was trying to upgraded on a Windows XP service pack 2 system that also had office 2003 pre-installed. But when the installation started i got an error message saying that windows installer service cannot update one or more protected windows and office 2007 rolled back installation. After that when i tried to open office 2003, it was not working, so i completely uninstalled it inorder to fix the mapi32.dll error that everyone gets normally and it worked again. After that i uninstalled the office 2003 completely in order to install the office 2007 but it didnt work either. I was getting the same error even after trying to install the new version numerous times. So, can anyone tell me how do i resolve this problem?

I think that there might be some left over files of office 2003 in your computer even when you try to uninstall it completely. Can you check in the Add or Remove programs for any office XP, 2000, 2002, 2003 kind of products appearing? Can you also check whether there is some FrontPage Server
extensions showing or is the IIS running properly when you start the installation? The errors that normally the error 1931 must give you the description of the file in either the error message or it could be listed in the log files that you can find by typing %temp% in Run command.

Even i was facing similar problems in my Windows XP system which was a clean install and office 2007 was not installing properly. And after reading on the net, I found out that this problem occurs due to some fault of a dll file called fp4ault.dll. So follow the below method to solve the protected file install error that you are getting:

1. You need to open FP40EXT.CAB file by double clicking on it that you can find in the Windows install disk or either the c:\i386 that could be present in the OEM version of the machine.
2. After that you have to search for fp4ault.dll in the list of dll files.
3. Now you have to double click on it and select extract to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin
4. After that you again have to start the office 2007 installation and this time it will install properly without any error.

I too registered just to say thank you. I had the same problem trying to install Office 2007 Enterprise on a computer with a fresh install of XP SP3, with no prior Office installation. I copied fp4autl.dll from the XP disk's .cab file into "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin" and the installation went off without a hitch.

Thank you.

thanks!
i too registered just to say THANK YOU! for this very helpful fix :D
i have spent hours trying to figure it out, well, it turned out, YOU DID! ;)

Good job!
Doumo arigatou gozaimasu!

I must announce that I created this account special to thank you all for what you do, for the time you devote to solve problems and find solutions. God bless all. Thanks!

I'm from Philippines, had that same problem a while ago, and with your help guys it's already solved... Just registered to say thank you very much, keep up the good work. God bless.

First of all, thanks for the solution.
I downloaded the fp4autl.dll into "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin". Installation goes smooth and now its working fine.
But, when i downloaded the file it gave me a warning that system may become unstable and when installation complete,it said that it requires a reboot to complete the procedure. I hit cancel.[/B]
Is the warnings serious? will it cause any problem in future??
I have windows XP sp2.
Plz enlighten!!

Thank you Sooooooo Muuchhhh.. it really helped a lot. I was about to throw my laptop because of that stupid error. I also used USB boot to install windows xp using winflash. It is freshly installed so it really disappointing to have that error with no solution. I just made this account to give my thanks to those who helped me. Godbless

I joined just to say thanks, this fixed my problem!
Saved me a ton of time.

Thanks again!

Terrific!
thank you so much!
I've installed and reinstalled without success before reading this thread.
just copy the .dll file as you said and here, problem solved.
Google is right when it put your page top of the search list.
Thank you again.

Thanks too !

In case anybody wondering, I was doing a fresh install of XPSP2 on some chinese-brand $200 netbook using WinToFlash-ed USB pendrive (just Google "Novicorp WinToFlash"). Seems like the USBification of the XP install disc also does a bit of trimming ..

anyway,

thanksalots !

and by the way,

make note that searching at support.microsoft.com for this problem will yield you NOTHING.

this place has the correct solution.

(searching "cannot update protected windows files" at bing put the link here at #2, though .. yet searching the exact same query at google puts it at #1.)

Cheers!

Thank you very much for making this thread!

I had the same annoying error when I tried to install Office 2007 on my netbookwhich i recently reformatted. I also installed xp on it using a flash drive.

just like almost everyone, i joined just to thank you guys.

Keep on posting helpful threads!

God bless.

Thank you so much!
Maraming Salamat po!

Hi guys

Just wanted to say a big thanks to all contributors on this thread.

I had the same problem after i created a new partition and installed XP (dual boot of windows 7 and XP) then tried to install Enterprise edition. Wouldnt play ball untill I added IIS from the XP SP3 disk and then downloaded and extracted the fp4 cab into "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin". Installation went through first time.

relief after three days of torment MS arggh!!! :-)

thanks guys! the solutions worked like a charm on Windows XP SP3

Just wanted to register and notify the thread that this still works on Office 2010 Office ultimate.

I just installed a new HD into the Netbook and had to install everything and when installing office it failed...

Found this thread, searched the CD for the file mentioned and then copied to the folder listed above and BLAMMO... It installed and is done...

Thanks !!!!!

this thing works. I have a netbook, and i had to install an nlite after installing xp. same problem occured, "...cannot update some windows files..." thing. And there isnt an optical drive in my netbook, so i cudnt get it from the xp cd.

Googled it, got it, downloaded it, installed it and it works fine, absolutely fine!

Thanx guys!

Google, love you! :)