Microsoft Office encountered an error during setup
If you are trying to install Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 on a computer that has had Office installed on it previously, you may encounter the following, un-helpful, error message:
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 has encountered an error during setup
This can be very frustrating since there is no error code or anything in the message that gives you a clue what the problem is. Usually this indicates that there are fragments of a previous Microsoft Office installation left behind on your hard drive. There are a number of solutions so I’ll start with the easiest first.
- Delete the rgstn.lck file in the Microsoft Help folder. The location of this folder depends on your operating system and the rgstn.lck file is normally hidden so follow the instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 927153. (NOTE: Some users have reported that you need to delete the entire Microsoft Help folder instead of just the rgstn.lck file)
- Make sure you completely uninstall all versions of Office. Even after you uninstall Office using the normal procedure, there may be remnants left behind. Microsoft provides manual removal instructions in KB article 928218. However the instructions are quite complicated so I recommend using the “Fix It” utility on the same page. This utility can take a long time to run so if it seems to hang on one particular step just be patient and let it finish.
- Use a program like CCleaner to delete temporary files and invalid registry entries. This is a good housekeeping measure anyway but it’s especially good after uninstalling something to clean up leftover remnants.
- Disable all anti-virus software and/or clean-boot the computer. They always say to disable anti-virus software when installing a new program. Most of the time it doesn’t matter but there are times when it actually makes a difference. Even better yet is to clean-boot the computer so that nothing is running except the essentials. I’ll be making an article on that very soon.
Following those steps should get you going but if you’re still having problems, I’ve heard some people recommend re-registering the Windows Installer and checking permissions on the %TEMP% folder and the C:\Windows\Installer folder to make sure you have full-control. To re-register the Windows Installer run the following commands:
msiexec /unregister
msiexec /register
I hope that helps!
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About Author
Kent
Self-proclaimed computer geek
Good related information! I have been hunting for some thing like that for a time these days. Excellent!
Thanks a lot for this. I am about ready to toss my PC out the window dealing with this issue. I had Office 97 installed on a Windows 7 platform which is supposedly a big no no (unbeknownst to me at the time). I was able to install Office 2010 on the PC while having 97 on there already. When I went to uninstall 97, it gave me all sorts of problems. Ended up uninstalling 2010, doing a full re-install of 1997. Finally got that to uninstall, but now cannot get 2010 back on the PC. I get this exact error message every time I try, and it locks up every time at about the same spot, about 2/3 through the install. I followed all of these steps…any other ideas come to mind?
Thanks!
You can try the Microsoft Office Cleanup Utility. It’s a Microsoft tool but they no longer support it so you can download it here. Once you install the tool, run it and remove all instances of Office from your computer.
thanks..this really helps…
none of those suggestions worked so i did some more googling and found that all i had to do was rename the micosoft help folder that step 1 refers to do. i can’t believe i spent so many hours trying to solve this and all i had to do was rename a folder 😛
I have got the correct solution it works download “ccleaner” and run that application after that go to “start” type in “run” then type “msconfig” hit enter then under “general tab” click on “normal startup” then restart your pc 🙂
Hi, thank you very very very much
Searched far and wide for a fix for this. Turned out, for me, Windows Firewall had to be disabled.
Happy hunting!
😛
Thanks for this post. It helped me to solve my MS Office 2010 installation Issue.
I was in trouble from last 2 days, finally I solved the issue with the help of this post.
Thankssssssssssssssssssss
Thank you very much. This worked perfectly.
I have tried everything on this page, but I still can’t re-install MS Office 2007 without this error. Any other suggestions
😛 Thanks!
😕 😕 😕
I still cant install Office 2010 and 2013 without getting this, office encountered an error during setup, help please 🙁 🙁
go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927153 sorted me out
Thanks a lot. This solved my problem. I looked at other help sites and they were not as complete.
im not really mad at MS but they really made me really mad because of a simple software im thinking switching to mac
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!
I did all of the steps you listed and also the Microsoft Office Cleanup Utility and that removed all of the files and I was able to reinstall Windows 2010. I tried to do the complicated manual install and that didn’t work. I’ve been trying everything for DAYS.
set up can’t find or validate an installation file.please try reinstalling office from your installation source,or if you installed from downloaded package,please re-download and reinstall.if you continue to have problems ,please contact microsoft or your system administrator.
Thanks… bro… its work for me… after delete all file in help folder..
Can you also update on the new office program versions? It is an old topic and is showing unknown results.
here is the real solution.
http://tc-itservices.com/microsoft/microsoft-office-professional-2013-encountered-error-setup/
I googled for an hour and found that all i had to do was rename the micosoft help folder that step 1 refers to do and the problem blows away 😀
Microsoft seems to know about this issue because they have created a fix program. I kept having the “error” message with no details. So started doing a search to help. This post actually showed high in the return and it will allow me to write a comment so I will post this here. The solution I used was to run the Microsoft fix found at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Uninstall-Office-from-a-PC-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8