Microsoft KB Archive/294978

= You receive an &quot; This installation package could not be opened&quot; error message when you install Office XP =

Article ID: 294978

Article Last Modified on 12/4/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office XP Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition
 * Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition for Students and Teachers
 * Microsoft Office XP Developer Edition
 * Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q294978





SYMPTOMS
When you run Setup, you may receive the following error message:

This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify this is a valid Windows Installer package.



CAUSE
This error message can occur if the name of the network share from which you are running Setup is more than 12 characters in length (13 characters or more). For example, you receive the error message if the path to Office Setup is:

\\server\long_share_name\Off2002\CD1\Setup.exe

In the preceding path, the long_share_name is more than 12 characters.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, rename the network share from which you are running Setup. For example, if the path to Office Setup is

\\server\long_share_name\Off2002\CD1\Setup.exe

rename the network share to share_name. This makes the new path to Office Setup the following:

\\server\share_name\Off2002\CD1\Setup.exe

Because share_name is 12 characters or fewer, you will not receive the error message when you run Setup for Office.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Keywords: kbsetup kbtshoot kbpending KB294978

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