I downloaded the trial version of Office 2013 to evaluate it, but was unable to install it because I kept getting the following error...

Setup cannot find or validate an installation file.  Please try reinstalling office from your installation source or if you installed from a downloaded  package, please re-download and reinstall.  If you continue to haVe problems contact Microsoft or your system administrator.

I tried re-downloading the program - again I was met with the same problem.  I tried running the setup file as administrator - problem remained.  I tried copying the program to the hard drive and running it from there as the administrator - problem remained.  I downloaded Microsoft  fixit tool for problem installations and ran that - that was no use either.  The error message just kept coming back again.

I am assuming the setup file is corrupted in some way but seem unable to get an alternative setup file that will actually INSTALL.  Or is there something so blatantly obvious going on that I'm missing it?

Help please!

Hi,

Please follow the stpes below to check if you can fix the problem:

1. Copy all the files from the Microsoft Office 2013 folder and paste those to into a folder on your hard drive.

2. From the copied folder, find the setup.exe file. Select that file and and right-click on it and choose Run as administrator option from the menu items.

3. After completing step 2, The User Account Control window will opened and will ask you Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer? with the option Yes and No. Just choose Yes to continue installation.

For more information, please refer:

http://plusminus.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-solve-office-installation-error-Setup-cannot-find-or-validate-an-installation-file-for-Windows-computer

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Steve Fan
TechNet Community Support

Hi Steve

Please read my original posting again - you will see that I have already tried that  ["I tried copying the program to the hard drive and running it from there as the administrator - problem remained." ]  I had previously visited the link you supplied prior to posting my question and tried the method outlined - but as I said, it failed.

Thank you for your response nonetheless.

TC

Sorry for my misunderstanding.

Please check if your operating system meet the standard system requirements for Office 2013, see:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee624351.aspx

Where did you download the Office program? If you didn't download it from Microsoft official website, please try down;oad it here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/try/

In addition, we can try run the setup file in Windows clean boot to check if this problem is caused by software conflict:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Please let me know the result.

Regards,

Steve Fan
TechNet Community Support

Yep, my system meets all the requirements.

I downloaded the program from the Technet Evaluation Center.

I'll try a clean boot later today and post back the results.

TC

Nope - clean boot didn't work either - same error message

Did you ever get a solution to this problem? I have the same problem:-(

I deployed Office 2k13 to client machine via SCCM 2012 R2. It did that flawlessly but I got the same error after trying to uninstall Office 2k13.

setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus /config .\ProPlus.ww\Uninstall.xml

Uninstall.xml file:

<Configuration Product=ProPlus>

<Display Level=basic CompletionNotice=yes SuppressModal=yes AcceptEula=yes />

</Configuration>

I can uninstall Office 2k13 manually by running setup.exe and following wizard but it is not automatic process so it sucks.

• Edited by BoxiKG Wednesday, November 12, 2014 1:49 PM

I deployed Office 2k13 to client machine via SCCM 2012 R2. It did that flawlessly but I got the same error after trying to uninstall Office 2k13.

setup.exe /uninstall ProPlus /config .\ProPlus.ww\Uninstall.xml

Uninstall.xml file:

<Configuration Product=ProPlus>

<Display Level=basic CompletionNotice=yes SuppressModal=yes AcceptEula=yes />

</Configuration>

I can uninstall Office 2k13 manually by running setup.exe and following wizard but it is not automatic process so it sucks.

I've responded in your other thread:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/fd735611-95bf-46f6-8add-2229a52e3e93/i-can-not-uninstall-office-2013-from-command-line?forum=officeitpro

Hi, your command-line is not valid - you are using a "relative" path for the <config.xml> and that is not supported..

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178956(v=office.15).aspx#BKMK_config

Note: You must use a fully qualified path. Setup does not recognize relative paths with /config. 

Instead, I suggest that you copy your "Uninstall.xml" file to the same folder where setup.exe exists, then, adjust your command-line like this:

setup /uninstall ProPlus /config Uninstall.xml

No, same error. I copied xml file to same folder where setup.exe is located. Again Setup can not find or validate an installation file . . . This is so frustrating. Rocket science.

Error was caused by .xml file itself. I changed it to:

<Configuration Product="ProPlus">
<Display Level="none" CompletionNotice="no" SuppressModal="yes" AcceptEula="yes" />
<Setting Id="SETUP_REBOOT" Value="Never" />
</Configuration>

I run setup /uninstall ProPlus /config Uninstall.xml. Office 2013 was silently uninstalled.

• Proposed as answer by BoxiKG Sunday, November 16, 2014 7:05 PM
• Unproposed as answer by BoxiKG Sunday, November 16, 2014 7:05 PM
• Proposed as answer by BoxiKG Sunday, November 16, 2014 7:06 PM

Hi,

I had a similar problem with same error when installing on Windows 8.1. The solution was easy. I have found out that I can install without error from the same iso on the server 2012 R2. So I checked xml files mounted on the server and on the workstation. XML files on the workstation were unreadable.
Here is the SOLUTION: Mount iso on the server, copy files to folder and than install from that folder.

Best Regards

Pavel B.