Repairing Office Installations
Microsoft Office XP retains functionality introduced in Office 2000 to automatically detect and repair missing or corrupt files in Office applications. This functionality has helped administrators reduce the number of application failures caused when files are accidentally deleted or overwritten by older files.
Automatic repair feature of Office
The automatic repair of applications and features in Office is an important part of managing an Office installation. Office XP accomplishes this function by tracking important groupings of Office resources known as components — the files or registry entries necessary for an application to function properly. Lists of information about these components are stored with each Office installation in a Windows Installer package (MSI file).
Some of the files or registry entries are marked within Office as keypath resources. If a keypath of a component is found missing or corrupt when Office attempts to load it, Office will force the resources of that component to be restored from the original installation source, or administrative installation point.
The same technology that installs or removes files on a user's computer — Windows Installer — also performs the repairs. When Office fails to find or load a component, Windows Installer automatically attempts to repair the fault by using files from the administrative installation point. Office uses the cached MSI file local to the user's computer and reinstalls all missing or defective files or registry entries.
This repair process is conducted without user intervention or failure messages that occur with other application or file failures. A user might notice a slight delay in starting an application when the files and registry entries are replaced, but the application should resume functioning as normal.
Forcing an application repair
Users can force the repair of an application they think is corrupt. The Detect and Repair command (Help menu) in any Office XP application forces a review of all Office files associated with that application. If any components have missing or corrupt keypaths, new copies of files or registry settings are retrieved from the original installation source and copied to the proper locations on the users' computers. Registry entries are reset to default installation settings if required.
There are two options available on the Detect and Repair dialog, Restore my shortcuts while repairing and Discard my customized settings and restore default settings. Administrators have the option of disabling these two options through policy settings in the Office10.adm template (Microsoft Office XP | Help | Detect and Repair…).
Users can also repair an application by running Office XP Setup in maintenance mode (click Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel and select support information, then click Repair), or, if necessary, by uninstalling and then reinstalling Office XP.
Keypaths and components in Keypath.xls
The Microsoft Excel workbook Keypath.xls has a list of all the keypath files and registry values associated with Office XP features and components.
Keypath.xls lists Office XP features in alphabetical order. For each feature, the workbook includes the following information:
- Feature — Name of a feature used by Office in abbreviated form.
- Component — Components of a feature listed in alphabetical order.
A component can be used by more than one feature.
- Component ID — Globally unique identifier (GUID) added to the Windows registry after a feature using the component is installed.
In the registry, the GUID appears in a compressed format.
- Directory — Folder where the keypath file is stored (if the keypath is a file).
- Keypath — File or registry value used as an indicator for the component.
Note In the Keypath column, some entries begin with the text msorid, which refers to ORAPI registry data. The Keypath.xls workbook does not provide the registry information for these entries.
Limitations of automatic repair
Office XP will not instruct Windows Installer to initiate a repair process in all circumstances. For example:
- When the Windows Desktop Update is not installed.
To enable all the self-repair capabilities of Office XP, the Windows Desktop Update must be installed (the Microsoft Windows® 2000 and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition operating systems have this functionality by default). If necessary for Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 or Windows 98 operating systems, the Desktop Update can be installed by creating a transform for the OSP.msi and setting the InstallDesktopUpdate property in the Modify Setup Properties page of the Custom Installation Wizard to Install the Windows Desktop Update.
- When a component contains more than one file or registry entry, and one of the corrupt or missing files or registry entries is not listed as a keypath.
For example, the Global_Word_Intl component includes two resources — Ww10intl.dll (which is also marked as a keypath) and Email.dot (which is not marked as a keypath). If Ww10intl.dll is missing when Microsoft Word 2002 starts, then Global_Word_Intl is repaired automatically. However, if Email.dot is missing, no repair is triggered.
Caution Do not intentionally corrupt or delete keypath resources to trigger a repair. If you suspect files are corrupt, click Detect and Repair from the Help menu of any Office application, rerun Office Setup in maintenance mode and use the Repair Office option, or uninstall and then reinstall Office XP completely.
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