I have win xp sp3
I'm working on a laptop for a friend that started out with office 03. He asked me to upgrade him to office 07. So I did. I just ran the office 07 pro plus volume lic. disk. Software went on fine. He decided later that he did not like office 07. So I attempted to remove it and put office 03 back on. I removed it successfully. When I tried to install office 03 it said that it was already installed. When I tried to open word the windows installer screen comes up as if it was installing the program the goes away and never opens. Then I get the message that “this patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid windows installer patch package.” When I checked Add/Remove program I see it there, but I will not allow me to remove it. I get the same message. What should I do to remove it? Can someone please help me in resolving this problem?

If you have the office 03 discs, I would download and run the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility then try to reinstall office 03.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

I seem like these steps are for office 07. I'm trying to remove office 03. will these setps work the same?

Yeah, use the cleanup utility to remove office 03.

thanks alot i will let you know how the outcome is.

I have the same problem, but can't figure it out either. Help please. Installer cleanup did not work for me.

From the link given by jdillman

In short (I assume from the utterly opaque descriptions above) it wont actually uninstall anything......it might allow a reinstall though.

Tried to uninstall Office 2003 using the control appwiz.cpl comand but that still did not work.
How do I remove the Windows Installer?

Still got the same error message "“this patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid windows installer patch package.”

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295823 is this what you already tried ? How about Revo download. http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Thanks gbhall,

Yes, tried what the Microsoft link said and get the same error. I already have "Your Uninstaller Pro" installed and it gives me a different error. It won't uninstaller it either. So I'm not sure the Revo Uninstaller would work but I'll try it tonight and let you know.