[Solved] Vista: Installation package could not be opened...

[WileyinOhio]

After numerious attempts to download and install OpenOffice 3.0 on my new Vista computer, I keep getting a pop-up window that says
"This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package."
Please advise, and thank you
WileyinOhio

[Hagar Delest]

What is the name of the file you've downloaded and what is its size?

[WileyinOhio]

OpenOffice.org 3.0 (en-US) Installation Files, which contains 11 files and 3 folders, all of which seem to contain varying amounts of data. I have downloaded this on 3 separate occasions from the OpenOffice website.

[Hagar Delest]

You've tried the setup.exe file?
Any anti-virus that could prevent OOo from running?

[WileyinOhio]

The pop up window appears when I hit the setup.exe. The second attempt at downloading and running was done with all virus and firewalls shut down with the same results.

[Hagar Delest]

Have you tried to run it as administrator (right click)?
Again a problem with Vista rights.

[WileyinOhio]

Didn't know about that, but now I have and unfortunately, same results...

[WileyinOhio]

Bump

Am I out of luck? Sure hate to think that the MS thugs have figured out a way to prevent certain versions (Vista Home Premium) from downloading OOo so we get locked into buying MSOffice...

btw, groping for a solution I attempted to load the installation files to a flash card and installing from there with the same results.

[Hagar Delest]

Have you tried to switch off any security application running, deactivating the UAC and so on?
If no change, I'm running out of idea.

[haven]

I just got off the phone with a Windows tech who gave me the solution to this problem.

It seems that the "Run as administrator" command only gives you some administrative privileges, and they're not enough to install Java (and OpenOffice, by association). In order to get around this, you need to actually log into an administrator. Open a command prompt with admin rights by clicking start, typing cmd into the search/run box, and hitting CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER. At the prompt, type:

net user administrator /active:yes

Then log out of your regular account and back in as the administrator, where you should be able to install the program. When you're done, log back into your regular account and, for security purposes, disable the administrator account using:

net user administrator /active:no

[Hagar Delest]

Many thanks for the follow up, that's indeed a valuable piece of information!!!

[WileyinOhio]

but of course... why didn't I think of that... (j/k)

How foolish of me to presume that when I buy a computer and register myself as the Administrator that would be that. No, seems you have to dig through something like this to find out you have to set up something like "Ultra Mega Jedi Administrator" to do what you should have been able to do all along.

I certainly appreciate all of the assistance. OOo now runs flawlessly.

[rogerfgay]

Oh, but hold on .... I've had OO running on my own machine with Windows Home Vista Premium (someone invent another 50 funny words in the name to go with this so we can make fun of MS again - they deserve it obviously) for months. No problem with the install or anything. The problem is just with a new installation on another computer running the same OS and set up the same way (I did both).

Something in the OO software install package has changed.

[davidwi]

For anyone else who found this page while trying to install something and getting this message: "This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package."

Another possible problem is that your installer is located on a network drive. I got this error message when trying to install Python. If your installer is on a network drive, move it to your local drive and try again, and it should work.