Win XP Professional Trial & Internet Explorer

[Computer Deb]

I received a MS Office XP Trial when I made a purchase of a CPU fan. So I thought ... what the hell, I'll "trial" it. I already had Office 2000 and like most of the improvements in XP Home.

After the trial period, I did not puchase Office XP for my home. I didn't install because there were a couple of features that I liked in EXCEL that 2000 didn't have.

While trying to run a scan of my Internet Explorer with command "SFC /scannow" it asks for my XP Professional Service Disk 1, which of course I don't have. I uninstalled my XP Office Professional Trial (which didn't affect my work or my previous 2000 installation).

I tried running "SFC /scannow" but I get the same message and it doesn't close down, which is extremely irrating. I am trying a few other things, because it appears that my settings have been altered by something or someone so I can't use this MS fix?

Any ideas of what I might be able to do?

Dazed and Com-fused in Duluth ...

[Paul Komski]

Have re-read your post a few times and still a bit confused as to exactly what was done. Could you rephrase things and make clear the different references to WinXP and OfficeXP, why you are using sfc and what was installed/uninstalled.

There have been a number of problems with completely uninstalling all versions of MS office and MS has both MSKB articles and patches to correct most of them - if that is where your problem lies.

The line...
I didn't install because there were a couple of features that I liked in EXCEL that 2000 didn't have
... throws me completely. Was Office XP installed or not??

[Computer Deb]

I apologize about the confusion ...

My operating system is Win XP and I have Office 2000 installed.

I installed OfficeXP as a 30-Day Trial.

After the 30 day period, I didn't purhcase OfficeXP, but didn't uninstall it. My reason for that is that the Excel in Office XP had a few cool tweaks which I liked, such as seeing your clipboard, etc.

Friday, while online, I wasn't able to use links from either my email or at a few websites. It wouldn't allow me to print anything either. When I went to the Microsoft website to check on what might be wrong with my Internet Explorer 6, it suggested that I run the SFC /scannow to see if there were any registry problems with my IE. When I did this, it asked me for the my OfficeXP Service Pack Installation Disk 1. Then it wouldn't shut down. That's when I uninstalled the OfficeXP trial version that was on my system.

When I tried running SFC again, same thing ... it is looking for my Office XP Disk 1. If I put in my WINXP CD, it doesn't recognize it.

However, other things have happened with my system during all this:
1. My search and help do NOT open
2. I went to the Microsoft Support website but my system would allow me to download ... I also couldn't post a question to Microsoft.
3. None of the links that I receive in emails work.
4. I use Norton System Works for Anti-Virus and when I boot up or reboot, I get a message from Norton that says an authorized program has changed the settings on my Norton programs. I can't change that.
5. One of my last resorts was to do a System Restore, but I get the message that it could not complete it.

I have posted my question on PC Guide in the Internet/Security section about a virus. I have scanned and found NO viruses.

I am able to get my email and got online. Most of my other programs work, I am able to print from my word processing program.

I am totally lost and can't figure out what has caused this problem.

I am still confused ... Debbi

[Paul Komski]

Hmmm - There are known problems with uninstalling Office Apps. I slso know that I had a related problem a while back when I didn't activate an installation of Office 2000 before the 50 uses had been reached. After uninstalling it, I had to get some patch from MS before I could access Office 97 - newly installed.

But I smell a rat. Too many seemingly unrelated problems. And are you sure its OfficeXP SP1 that it's looking for and did you ever install any Office SPs or would they have been included in your special offer Office XP trial?

I would recheck for viruses, trojans, spyware and so on, then try a restore point if you have one for before all this happened and then try a repair installation of the OS.

[Computer Deb]

I "re-installed" my WIN XP which worked ... I was concerned that it might not.

I ran X-Setup to see if I could change some things in my browser and it wouldn't run. The system check failed because it was missing files, including my help, etc. So I figured that re-installing was the only choice ... and it worked!

I didn't lose any old settings or anything. So I'm happy today. I assume that some application deleted some files that we needed.

Thanks for everyone's help ... I was only "down" for a day and a half, that's better than other times!

Debbi