2016 ProPlus install cannot find file specified

PK Player 71 Reputation points
2021-02-05T12:41:02.34+00:00

Hello

I am trying to install Microsoft Office 2013 Pro Plus 32bit on a new Windows 10 Pro 64bit client in an Active Directory domain.

I have customised the installation so that it installs without Access and includes the product key and company name.

History:
The product was originally installed, but it included Access. I uninstalled it plus all the Microsoft Office apps listed under Settings > Apps. The machine was restarted.

Next, I tried installing it but after allowing the installation to go ahead by confirming the UAC prompt a message is displayed:

Setup Error
The system cannot find the file specified.

I trawled the forums and downloaded and ran the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant. This allowed me to specify the issue was with MS Office 2013 and the tool ran through various repairs/uninstall and a clean-up after a restart. It finished successfully.

However, when I tried to run setup.exe once more the same message was displayed.

I copied the folder containing the installation files/folder to the client but saw the same error message when I ran setup.exe

I have run sfc on the client and Windows Update (both via WSUS and Microsoft's Update servers). SFC reported no problems with the system.

Can anyone provide any help, please?

Thank you.

Office Management
Office Management
Office: A suite of Microsoft productivity software that supports common business tasks, including word processing, email, presentations, and data management and analysis.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. Emi Zhang-MSFT 22,011 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2021-02-08T09:35:26.6+00:00

    Hi @PK Player ,
    How did you set the specified location to access the data source for installing?

    Where did you store the installation source？

    I suggest you provide a screenshot about your settings.

    Try to check if the user have permission to access the folder.

    Please be a bit more precise to explain your requirement or you can upload a screenshot so that I can get more accurate solutions to this problem. I’m glad to help and follow up your reply.

    If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
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  2. PK Player 71 Reputation points
    2021-02-09T09:10:11.82+00:00

    Hi, emizhang-msft, thank you for responding to my query.

    The installation files are located on a member server in our domain. We operate two arms of the same company and require different installations of Office 2013 Pro Plus for each.

    One company uses the default installation - all applications are installed. I used setup.exe /admin to customise the company information and embed the product serial number.

    The second company as as above, except it does not use Access. I used setup.exe /admin to customise the installation so that the company information and serial number are included and prevent Access from being installed.

    The customised .msp file resides in the relevant updates folder for each company

    D:\DRIVES\IT\Applications\MS-Office 2013\company1\x86\updates\company1.msp

    I usually installed the customised version of 2013 and then run a custom installation of 2003 and choose just Access, then apply the Office 2003 SP3 patch. This is because we use an ancient database that requires MS-Access 2003.

    Authenticated Users have read and execute/list folder contents/read permissions access to the folders containing the two company installations of Office 2013 Pro Plus and I have been using these sources to install office 2013 in this way for several years, including on several Windows 10 Professional clients.

    This is the first time I have encountered a problem during the installation of Office 2013 Pro Plus.

    [Edit]
    I usually install the applications myself. My account is a member of the Domain Administrators group. It has full access to the installation source/target.

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  3. PK Player 71 Reputation points
    2021-02-09T12:29:00.61+00:00

    I have just tried to install it on a second Windows 10 domain client and am seeing the same issue. I will be in our office on Thursday so will grab the iso we have and write it to a DVD and use that instead to see if it works

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  4. Emi Zhang-MSFT 22,011 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2021-02-10T06:56:01.453+00:00

    Hi @PK Player ,
    Did you mean this problem only appear in users have Access 2003 in PC?
    If you need install Office 2013 and Office 2003 at the same PC, you can only install Office 2013 32-bit.
    And you need to install Office 2003 first and then install Office 2013.
    Then did you check if the license is enough to activate?

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  5. PK Player 71 Reputation points
    2021-03-05T15:57:16.657+00:00

    Hello!
    I'm sorry that I have taken so long to get back to this.

    Turns out it was MapInfo that was causing the issue. When MapInfo installs it checks for access database components. If they exist and they are 2010 or later MapInfo installs without them.

    I had two installs to deal with for Office 2013:
    Client one required Access 2003 / Office 2013 (without Access) / MapInfo
    Second client required full Office 2013 / MapInfo

    I had installed Access 2003 on client one, then MapInfo.
    On client two I had installed MapInfo

    When I tried installing Office 2013 on each client the error message was generated.

    I needed to install Office 2013 on a client on which MapInfo was not installed and the installation proceeded without a hitch.

    I went back to the first two clients and removed MapInfo and the Access 2010 data components. I then uninstalled Office 2003 (Access) from the first client.

    Client one: I reinstalled 2003, then 2013 (without Access) and it worked fine. I then installed MapInfo and it installed the Access 2010 data components first before the program itself was installed.

    Client two: I installed Office 2013. I then installed MapInfo and it just installed the main program (presumably because a later version of the Access data components was already present).

    So, all sorted.

    Thanks for the input, I always appreciate everyone's help.

    Mark

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