MS Excel won't work after windows update

Dear all,
Has anyone run into this problem? They released a patch for MS excel around a month ago, which I innocently accepted to install, only to find that it rendered my Excel unusable unless I reinstalled it with my Office XP Pro CD. I inserted what I thought was my Office XP Pro CD to find that the comp could not locate the file. Perhaps there is another Office XP cd kicking around the mess in my room but there is no way I can find it. Excel is my life! I tried system restore but realized I had it turned off from a virus incident a long time ago, so no restore points were available. I tried to locate the window update file to uninstall it but it doesnt seem to be listed on add/remove programs. I heard that the nature of windows office is that if I don't use my own cd it won't work so borrowing a cd might not help. Does anyone know what I sohuld do to get my old excel back? I hardly care about it's so called security problems because I think this patch is just a way for microsoft to see if you still have their cd.

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the suggestion, however the update you gave me is for Excel 2002 and I have the 2003 version, so the error message upon installation of the update was "the correct version of the software could not be found" so I went ot download the update for excel 2003, and surprisingly, the same message showed up. It seems that there is no update for an Excel "XP" version (from the Office XP suite). I don't understand...I cant find anything listed as KG***** in my add/remove programs...

 

Office updates routinely require all previously released service packs to be installed prior to patch installation.

For example, if a security patch or update is released after Office 2003 SP1, then you may get a incorrect version error if you try to install just that patch if SP1 is not installed.

The same is true of subsequent service packs.

In other words, even though you may well have Office 2003,. and the update is for Office 2003, unless the expected Service Pack is also installed, you amy get the incorrect version error.