Reinstallation Problem (WinME/OXPSP2)

[BobH]

Had Outlook give me grief. It would neither send nor receive (couldn't connect to ISP's mail servers) and would not allow me to delete or mark as read several e-mails. Said I lacked authority. After backing up my address book, templates, etc., I tried to uninstall Outlook. No dice. Uninstalled all of MS Office XP. Now when I try to reinstall, it is trying to access a file name MAINSP1.msp. A search of all my hard drives turned up only 1 *.msp file and it is not MAINSP1.

What can I do?

[OldDog]

Kind of sounds like a security problem. Maybe you're doing all of this work under a different system user name than the initial work? Maybe you're not a system administrator on this PC?

[BobH]

Need new tricks (sorry I couldn't resist). I really do appreciate the response and suggestion.

The PC is not networked and there are no user id's set up, only the default. I even went to my Dau's system and looked for the MAINSP1.msp file and it is not on hers either. Also searched Microsoft.com and couldn't find it nor could I find it on the OXP or WinME cd's.

I'm stumped.

[OldDog]

Hehe...

An msp file (at least in this case) is part of the Windows installer package. I think it relates to service packs. You might look for a WindowsInstaller folder (could be a hidden system folder). In the worst case you may need to download the installer cleanup utility. Search for article 238413 for more information and to see if this addresses your problem. These can be sticky problems; good luck!