I purchased a new laptop that came with windows XP professional. The first time I logged on to the internet, I used Windows update and installed all the updates. Then, I inserted my Office XP cd and got this message. "Error opening installation log file. Verify that the specified log file location exists and is writable." Can someone tell me what is happening?

Might want to try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296603/

Another possibility is that your new PC came with a trial version of Office and that install log is interfering. You might want to uninstall the trial.

Copy all of the office files from the Cd to a folder on the HD, then go to start/run and run the setup or install file from that folder, then only try installing 1 thing from office like, maybe excel or powerpoint, then after its installed and working, go back and insert your Office Cd, choose update or add whatever option it gives and then install the other office programs you need.

Thanks Wendy. It worked.

Very good Wendy. Great suggestion!!
fredg