A client has a big problem.  Have a brand new Dell Optiplex running MS Office and Windows XP Pro.  Two days ago, went into Word and found all documents were locked for editing (same for Excel).  Called Dell who walked them through uninstalling Office and then re-installing.  Since then, whenever they try to access an Office program OR try to remove the software via the Control Panel, they get the message: "This patch package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer patch package".  Same thing happens if they try to re=install from the CD.

MS has one entry in their Knowledge Base about this which involves cleaning out the registry but this applies to computers that had an earlier version of Windows or Office.  Since this is a brand new computer....

I know, I know, they should never have phoned Dell, but they did.

Any suggestions friends?

Much thanks.
Heather

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