Installer running every time Word opens.

I have a machine that opens the Windows Installer every time I launch Microsoft Word. The Installer will go for a minute or so, then go away. The machine has both Word 97 and 2002 installed. I tried to reinstall Word 2002, but it will not let me uninstall it. When I try to uninstall it, I get an error saying "The Patch Package Cannot Be Opened".

My first thought was that Word's dictionary file(s) were damaged or corrupt, because I'd get the same problem when running spell check in Outlook Express.

Windows XP Home SP3
P4 3.0ghz
1gb RAM

Please help!

 

I had this same problem (office 2003), on my daughters laptop- I used system restore ,and that stopped it- never looked further, as it solved it- posibly some download that caused the problem.

 

Thanks for the reply. System restore was turned off by the customer.