MS Office 97 Service Releases Install Helper version 2.0 Copyright (C) 1999 Igor Sidorkin All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION If you have problem applying Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 1 (SR-1) or Service Release 2 (SR-2), run SRhelper.bat. That might be just the solution. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION Many people experience problems applying SR-2 onto computers with an OEM version of MS Office 97 installed. This problem is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article q194581 - "OFF97 ErrMsg: "SR-2 Patch Cannot Be Applied to Your Computer"": http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q194/5/81.ASP. In most cases these problems are due to "a 'mixed' installation of Microsoft Office 97 base level and SR-1 files". To resolve this, Microsoft's proposes only one solution - to apply the latest SR-1 Patch. The word "latest" sounds very promising. However, there are no recent SR-1 patches, the latest one was released in July 1998. Thus, Microsoft suggests reapplying the SR-1 patch. It should help in rare situations if one (or more) of Microsoft Office 97 applications was (were) installed (reinstalled) after SR-1 has been applied. Unfortunately, that's just not the case for many users who keep getting the same error message no matter how many times they reapplied SR-1 to their systems. According to Microsoft, another possible cause of the reviewing problem Could be that "you do not have Microsoft Office 97 installed on your computer, or critical Microsoft Office 97 files are missing." The proposed solution is to reinstall MS Office 97, which, again, usually doesn't help either. The article does not mention a known solution among IT professionals, which suggests to uninstall and reinstall MS Office 97. However, sometimes even such radical solution doesn't help. As we can see, we are dealing with a problem for which causes are hidden. The fact that Microsoft's suggested solutions, which cover just some obvious situations, don't work serves as a part of that problem's description. RESEARCHING THE PROBLEM At first glance, the problem seems to be a bug within SR-2 patch. Indeed, you have just applied SR-1, which reported that it "has completed successfully" and then you receive SR-2's message, which "disagrees" with that first message by indicating "you have multiple versions of Microsoft Office 97". This means that while some of the applications are on the SR-1 level, some are still on base level. If something had gone wrong with the SR-1 installation, then SR-1 wouldn't have told you that it "has completed successfully", would it? Well, it turns out, yes, it would. Thus, although SR-1 reports that it has completed successfully and although a problem manifests itself only when SR-2 is being installed, the problem really lies in SR-1 installation instead of SR-2 patch. Further investigation reveals that one of the Microsoft Office 97 applications has not been updated by the SR-1 patch. In most cases Microsoft Word 97 is the one that has not been updated. Outlook 97 could be a culprit as well, although not as often as Word. POSSIBLE CAUSES: WORD 97 The SR-1 patch log file may tell us that Word 97 was not found in C:\Progra~1\Micros~1\Office directory and we know that this patch should have looked in another directory instead (e.g. C:\Progra~1\Micros~2\Office), where all Office files reside. This gives us a clue that there is wrong data about the location of Word 97 stored somewhere, most likely in the registry. A successful search in the registry for a wrong value (e.g. C:\Progra~1\Micros~1) indicated in the SR-1 log file proves this theory. Surprisingly, Microsoft Knowledge Base article q185279 - "OFF97: SR-1 Patch May Fail to Update Word 97 in OEM Versions", which can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q185/2/79.ASP, describes what would be most likely a cause of the reviewing problem: 'This problem may occur if you attempt to use the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch to update an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) copy of Microsoft Office 97 or Microsoft Word 97. Specifically, the problem occurs if the following key in the Microsoft Windows registry refers to an incorrect location for Microsoft Word 97: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{000209FF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} LocalServer32 The incorrect information in the registry key has been found on computers for which an OEM copy of Microsoft Office 97 or Microsoft Word 97 was installed.' This Microsoft Knowledge Base article is not linked in any way to article q194581. That's unfortunate, because the problem described here is most likely the cause of a problem described in the article q194581. Regardless, as a workaround this article suggests running 'either the Microsoft Office 97 or the Microsoft Word 97 Setup program with the "/r" and "/y" switches, and then reinstalling the Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 Patch.' ('The Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word Setup program is run. The /r switch instructs the Setup program to reinstall all files, and the /y switch instructs the Setup program to rewrite all of the registry keys used by Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word. The two switches combined cause the Setup program to verify that your installation of Microsoft Office 97 or Microsoft Word 97 is correct.') If that does not help, then 'you must completely uninstall (remove) and reinstall Microsoft Office 97.' Well, why don't we just make some simple corrections in the registry, which is much faster than uninstalling and reinstalling this huge application suite and neither asks us for the MS Office 97 CD nor clutters our network? However, you might want to ensure that other keys (there are seven of those), which refer to location for Microsoft Word 97, are correct. Don't know how to do that? Keep reading! POSSIBLE CAUSES: OUTLOOK 97 There is no corresponding article about this problem in Microsoft Knowledge Base. Furthermore, the SR-1 patch log file does not give us any clue why Outlook 97 was not updated. SR-1 just does not see that Outlook 97 is installed and therefore neither updates it nor gives any error message. The problem occurs if the following key in the Microsoft Windows registry, which refers to a location for Microsoft Outlook 97, is missing: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00020D09-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} LocalServer32 There are many keys in the registry, which refers to a location for Microsoft Outlook 97. However, the SR-1 patch looks only for this particular key. Obviously, that was not the best choice. Since patching SR-1 is an option for Microsoft programmers only, what we can do is to give the SR-1 patch what it is looking for. We have to create that registry key and use a full path to the file outlook.exe (e.g. C:\Program files\Microsoft Office\Office\outlook.exe) as its value. Don't know how to do that? Keep reading! SRHELPER All changes made by SRhelper can be done manually. However, running SRhelper saves you a lot of time no matter whether you are an inexperienced user, who does not feel comfortable editing the registry, or a network administrator, who, I am sure, will appreciate the possibility of using it as part of their scripts. Running SRhelper does not require any PC knowledge, it works instantly and it's free. Extract SRhelper.zip wherever you wish and double click SRhelper.bat. That's it. It runs for a second or two and displays a message indicating whether or not the registry was patched. After that, close DOS window and proceed with installing SR-1 and SR-2. Here is what SRhelper does: 1. Determines the DOS name of the folder where Microsoft Office 97 is installed in. Specifically, it finds what folder Mso97.dll file is in. 2. If SRhelper cannot find that folder, it quits. 3. If the file Mso97.dll is found, then SRhelper checks for the presence of another copy of Mso97.dll in %windir%\system and %windir%\system32 folders (e.g. C:\Windows\System\). The presence of the file there prevents the Service Releases from applying properly. If that file is found SRhelper renames it to mso97.srh. Actually, that file can be safely deleted, but I wouldn't want to delete any of your files. Note, if one of your applications requires Mso97.dll to be there, then just put a copy there when SR-2 is applied to your system. 4. Checks whether or not the file outlook.exe is in the same folder as Mso97.dll. 5. Checks whether or not the file winword.exe is in the same folder as Mso97.dll. 6. If both these last two operations fail, SRhelper quits. 7. Creates an appropriate registration entry file. 8. Runs regedit.exe in silent mode, which applies changes to the registry. 9. Displays a message indicating which folder MS Office 97 was found in and instructs the user to apply SR-1 and SR-2. LIMITATIONS This patch was successfully tested on computers for which an OEM copy of Microsoft Office 97 was installed. It most likely won't work on computers for which only an OEM copy of Microsoft Word 97 was installed. UPDATE HISTORY Changes in SRhelper v2.0 -- Released January 11, 2000 - Added capability to resolve problem with not updated by SR-1 patch Outlook 97. Changes in SRhelper v1.1 -- Released December 29, 1999 - Now SRhelper checks for presence of a second copy of Mso97.dll file in Windows\System folder and, if it's there, renames it. This eliminates one more possible cause of the reviewing problem. Changes in SRhelper v1.01 -- Released December 19, 1999 - SRhelper now works in default temporary directory and cleans up its temporary files after it completes. Therefore, now you can run SRhelper from write-protected media. - Minor changes in readme.txt file. DISTRIBUTION This patch can be freely distributed as long as the package remains intact. CONTACT INFORMATION Email: igsiy2k@yahoo.com Web site: http://igsi.tripod.com DISCLAIMER Any loss of information or misuse of this software is not the responsibility of the author. You use this product at your own risk! TRADEMARK ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Microsoft, Windows and other names of Microsoft products referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.