Locating a Previous Version of Office

The following information applies if you encounter Error 1608: Setup Could Not Locate a Previous Version of Office.

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to install the upgrade version of any of the products listed at the beginning of this article, you may receive the following message:

The product key you entered requires a version of Microsoft Office 97, 2000 or XP to upgrade. If one of these versions of Microsoft Office is not installed on your machine, you will need to supply a version of Microsoft Office on CD-ROM in the next step. Click OK to continue with the upgrade or click Cancel to stop the installation.

After selecting OK, you will see the following message:

Setup failed to locate a valid qualifying product on your machine. Please select the drive where a qualifying product can be found.

If you are able to select the drive letter (for example, C:) that represents where the valid qualifying product is installed and then click OK, the following error message displays:

Error 1608. Setup could not locate a version of Microsoft Office 97, 2000 or XP on the selected drive. Click OK to stop the installation. If you have a version of Microsoft Office on CD-ROM, run Setup again.

-and-

Installation ended prematurely because of an error.

CAUSE

This error may occur when you are installing an upgrade version of the products listed above and any one of the following conditions are true:

• Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition is installed.
• Office 2000 CD2 is installed on your computer, but Office 2000 CD1 is not installed on your computer.
• Office 2000 Small Business is not installed and you insert the Office 2000 Small Business CD1 when prompted for a qualifying product.
• The qualifying product is located on a mapped network drive and the Product Compliance Check dialog box only lists local drives.

RESOLUTION

1. Run Setup for Microsoft Office 2003.
2. Type the product key in the User Information dialog box, and then click OK.
3. In the Product Compliance Check CD Key dialog box, click OK.
4. In the Product Compliance Check dialog box, click your CD-ROM drive in the Drive list.
5. Eject the Microsoft Office 2003 CD, and then insert CD1 from Office XP, or Office 2000 or Office 97. If you are using Office 2000 Small Business Edition, insert CD2.
6. Wait 30 seconds to allow the CD-ROM drive to spin up and recognize the new CD that you inserted.
7. Click OK in the Product Compliance Check dialog box.
8. When the Microsoft Office 2003 End-User License Agreement appears, eject the previous version CD, and then insert your Microsoft Office 2003 CD.
9. Accept the Microsoft Office 2003 End-User License Agreement, and then click Next.
10. Complete the installation for Microsoft Office 2003.

STATUS

Microsoft Office 2003 is available as a non-upgrade version (full version) and as an upgrade version. The upgrade version requires that a qualifying product is installed on your computer or that the installation media from the qualifying product is available when you run the Setup program. The setup program for the upgrade version of Microsoft Office 2003 attempts to detect qualifying software on the computer on which it is running. If the setup program is unable to detect a qualifying program on the computer (such as Office 97 or Office 2000 or Office XP), an error occurs.

If you do not have a valid qualifying product, return the Microsoft Office 2003 Upgrade product, and purchase a full retail version of the Microsoft Office 2003 product.