Troubles With Microsoft Office 2003 SP3 Updater Failing

Ever since I ran a registry cleaner on my Windows XP machine, I have been unable to run automatic updates on any of my MS Office 2003 products. I couldn’t load Service Pack 3 nor the Outlook Junk Mail Filter Updates.

My Event Viewer log files showed MsiInstaller errors such as:

“Product: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 – Update ‘Update for Outlook 2003: Junk E-mail Filter (KB958620): OUTLFLTR’ could not be installed. Error code 1603. Additional information is available in the log file.”

What I learned was that I had previously run a registry cleaner which wiped out certain registry entries for some of the Office installer files paths.

Here is the fix:

Note: Before you proceed, backup the registry by going into regedit and choosing Export. And as an extra precaution, set a System Restore Point as well. You have been warned!

Rename Office subkeys

Note: Removing the following registry keys may reset customized user
settings for your Microsoft Office programs.

1. Close all the applications.
2. Click on Start->Run, type in REGEDIT and click on OK.
3. Locate and select the following registry subkeys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftOffice11.0

4. Right click on 11.0 and rename them to Old11.
5. Close the Registry Editor.

Detect and Repair Office 2003

1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start, point to and click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. Highlight Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003.
4. Click Change.
5. Select “Reinstall and Repair” and click Next.
6. Select “Detect and Repair errors in my Office installation”.
7. Insert the correct version of CD if it requires it.
8. Wait the process to end.

Now, Install your updates.

Make sure you have your original CD on hand as you may need it and you will also need to re-enter your seral number since you are editing the registry. So have the product ID card handy. When you restart and launch any of your Office programs, you will be required to re-enter the serial number.