msointl.dll missing

Why are people posting questions/problems about Microsoft Office in the Windows XP Community?

Would you take your broken Mercedes to a Volkswagen mechanic for help?

I think you might get better help by asking Office questions in the Office Community which is here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office

Actually, yes.

As they are both owned by the same company.

The original title says "I'm getting a missing msointl.dll", but no-where do I see anything in the description that tells how that conclusion was reached. Don't expect anyone to solve your problem if you don't describe it properly.

The error message I get when I try to start Excel by double clicking on an Excel file, but only when Excel is not already running, says:

"Microsoft Office Excel requires the file 'MSOINTL.DLL' to run. Run Setup again to assure proper installation."

That error message does not necessarily mean 'MSOINTL.DLL' is missing. In fact, on my machine, it is located in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11\1033" (where Office setup put it?). I suspect the problem is caused by the fact that I uninstalled Office 2007 and then installed Office 2003 Pro with the Office 2007 converters. When I copied 'MSOINTL.DLL' into "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE12\1033", all of a sudden, I didn't get the error message anymore, instead Windows tried to install something from Office 2007.

I suspect an update may have messed up some registry entries, since I didn't have the problem originally, and I haven't added anything that should modify Office.

The error message also does not necessarily mean reinstall. I would be reluctant to reinstall Office, too; that would result in too much work fixing all of Microsoft's defaults. You may have to modify this process if you have a different version of Office than mine (2K3 Pro): try Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Microsoft Office..., Change, Reinstall or Repair, and Detect and Repair Errors in my Office Installation (don't check Restore your Start Menu Shortcuts unless you've reorganized them and want the original organization restored).

It took a couple of hours to uninstall MS Office 2003 and the Compatibility Pack, delete everything associated with MS Office 2007, remove all references to Office 2007 Home and Student Edition from the registry, and reinstall and update MS Office 2003 and the Compatibility Pack (32 updates in 3 separate sets of updates). Unlike previous versions of 2003 at least all my default Word and Excel settings were retained. However, when I double-click on a Word 2007 document, a Windows Installer dialog box appears saying "Preparing to install...", immediately disappears, and nothing further happens. Repairing the office installation and reinstalling the Compatibility Pack do not change this behavior; it just doesn't work.

Interesting, the problem was fixed by the above process at that time, but came back sometime between mid-May and June 20, 2011. I repeated the above process, but when I double click on a Word 2007 document (docx), either in Windows Explorer or one attached to an email in Windows Live Mail, I get the error: "Microsoft Office Word requires the file msointl.dll to run. Run setup again to assure proper installation." So I now suspect that an update messed up the Office 2007 converter installation. The note on Microsoft's Compatibility Pack download page "please install all High-Priority updates fromMicrosoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack" reinforces this suspicion, as many additional high-priority updates have been installed since I originally installed the Compatibility Pack; however, for some reason, it no longer even shows up in my list of installed programs in the Control Panel.

So I downloaded and reinstalled the Compatibility Pack. After that, when I double-clicked on a Word 2007 document in an email, Word started, immediately gave me a dialog asking me to enter my full name and initials, but then immediately gave an error message saying “The command cannot be performed because a dialog box is open. Click OK, and then close the dialog boxes to continue.” Clicked OK, and then Word opened and I got the error: “The setup controller has encountered a problem during install. Please review the log files for further information on the error.” I clicked OK, and Windows Installer once again tried to configure Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, and I was greeted by what appears to be Word 2007 (judging from the tabs and “ribbons” instead of menus and buttons), followed by a repeat of the error: “The setup controller has encountered a problem during install. Please review the log files for further information on the error.” Then the document opened. So I closed Word 2007 and started Word again. This time it said “Preparing to Install”, and then started as Word 2003. Now when I double-click on a Word 2007 docx email attachment, the above errors repeat and the document opens in Word 2007, but when I start Word 2003, it again says “Preparing to Install”. So I’m stuck in a loop. I repaired Word 2003 again IAW my previous post, and now Word 2003 works properly, but if Word is not running, when I double-click on a Word 2007 document, Word 2007 tries to fix its its installation, and then gives the error Microsoft Office Word 12.0 “An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run Setup and select “Repair…” to restore this application.”…which I cannot do, since I don’t have setup disks for 2007, gives an error referring to a setup log (but doesn’t tell me where that log may be found). I hoped I could change the file association in Windows Explorer, but it appears the Compatibility Pack has completely removed the file type Microsoft Word Document, leaving only Microsoft Word 2007 Document.

So it appears that Windows Update has broken Microsoft Office and my file types, and I will be forced to completely uninstall MS Office and the Compatibility Pack, delete everything associated with MS Office, reinstall them, set them up again, and HOPE that fixes the problem.

Microsoft will not pay me for the hours I’ve wasted on this problem, or will waste reinstalling Office and restoring their defaults to something rational, but they also won’t pay me for the even more hours I’d waste and have previously wasted on the step backwards to Office 2007.