It's likely because it's finding the necessary file on the CD/DVD ROM

You could try doing a repair install, or search your entire hard drive for the proplus.msi file. You might get lucky and find a copy buried in a folder somewhere.

This is getting comical now...

I bought Office 2010 for the wife and kids' laptop, so I thought I'd install it on the old desktop. Popped the disk in and nothing. Went in to check, and realized that the disk is a DVD, not a CD.

Unfortunately, the old machine is so old that it doesn't have a DVD drive.

LMAO

You can try Tweaking.com Windows Repair All-in-one

http://www.tweaking.com/content/page...ll_in_one.html

I used it recently to fix an issue similar to yours where an anti-virus screwed up Microsoft Word to where it was a pain in the butt to try to get it to open. Worth at try I think, it fixes registry and a bunch of other stuff.

Do you know anyone with a portable DVD drive (USB)? If so, that would work but Dude, just go to Micro Center and buy a $400 Intel based PC and be done with it.

:D

Seriously........