I guess the question is "did you buy copies of excel (and
word) with the laptop. If so then you'd probably be
better off re-installing "office". Suggesting that
Outlook is having problems too probasly means the OS
needs installing also.
Any customisations by the previous owner would be negated
this way, do a clean insatll

Regards, rob
>-----Original Message-----
>I purchased my laptop computer from a private business
>going out of business - when starting excel, apparently
>there is a file missing that the Office XP installer
needs
>named STD.MSI It is looking for the network which it
>would previously link up with to perform an update or to
>synchronize.
>
>The business is no longer there and Excel and Outlook
are
>affected this way. Word works fine. How do I get these
>programs to load and work without this file?
>
>any help would be much appreciated!!!!!
>
>.
>