In Windows Vista, if you go to Control Panel > Programs and Features, you get to uninstall, change and repair an installed software on your computer. Few days ago one of our active forum member Hellnoire was having trouble changing and uninstalling Microsoft Office 2007 from his computer. Clicking either the change or uninstall button and will prompt an error that says “Setup cannot continue because a required file is either corrupted or not available. Run Setup again from the original source disc or download location.”

There is an advice asking the user to reinstall Microsoft Office 2007 from the error window but trust me, most of the time the advice shown on the error window is useless. True enough, hellnoire inserted his Microsoft Office 2007 installation disc, and he couldn’t reinstall. I have Microsoft Office 2003 installed on the laptop that I normally use and I remembered that there is a “Detect and Repair” option in Help menu bar that is able to automatically find and fix errors in all Office files.


I suggested this possible solution to hellnoire but he wasn’t able to find Detect and Repair in his Office 2007. Later he found out that it was replaced with Microsoft Office Diagnostics. The Microsoft Diagnostics in Office 2007 will check for corruption in the files and registry settings in your Office 2007 installation, hard disk errors, RAM problems, compatibility problems, service pack updates availability and also offer any solutions that might be available according to the crash data.

There are three ways to run Microsoft Office Diagnostics.
1. If you have no problems in launching any Office components such as Word or Excel, you can click on the Microsoft Office button located at the top left and click Word Options. Then go Resources and click the Diagnose button.

2. If you can’t run any Office components. Go to Start > Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools and run Microsoft Office Diagnostics shortcut.

3. Finally if the Diagnose shortcut is missing from Start Menu and you can’t run any office components, then go to the following location C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\ and run offdiag.exe

The diagnostic will take about 15 minutes or more to complete, and once it finishes, hellnoire is able to use the uninstall and change button again in Programs and Features. If you ever encounter any problems or errors in Microsoft Office 2007, you should always try this diagnostic tool first.