Can't find SKU111.CAB

I ran into an odd problem today that I'm sure affects other
people.  Just in case you Google'd SKU111.CAB and wound up here,
hopefully this'll help.

SYMPTOMS

Every time you launch a
Microsoft Office application (Word, Excel, Front Page, etc), the
Windows installer is launched and attempts to do…something. 
After several seconds, the installer fails with an error message
indicating that it can't find a file called sku111.cab.  Even when
you insert a “Windows Office XP Professional with FrontPage 2002″ CD-ROM in
the computer, it fails the same way.  You're unable to locate the
file on the hard drive of the computer or on the CD-ROM you've got.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This
occurred for us when we added a new user to the computer.  We
tried changing the user to a Computer Administrator, and the only
change was that the installer offered a more detailed error
message.  Otherwise, the failure was the same.

SOLUTION

You've
got the wrong install CD.  In this case, it turned out that we had
installed Microsoft Office from a set of discs where FrontPage was on a
separate disc (rather than a single disk with Office and FrontPage on
one disc).  Once we located the Office Pro CD-ROM and inserted it,
the installer was satisfied.  Apparently, this happens the first
time a new user runs an Office app on a computer with Office already
installed.  It's a byproduct of Office setting up registry
settings and initializing the new user.

Hopefully, this was helpful to you.  If so, leave a comment below.

Eric Longman posted at 2005-1-21 Category: Geek Stuff
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85 Responses Leave a comment

  1. #1Anonymous @ 2005-11-19 14:12

    Eric, many thanks for providing this info; it helped.
    George Guay

  2. #2Anonymous @ 2007-1-31 20:12

    I have had this happen snce I installed Office 12 Beta. Now that I have uninstalled this issue is more common.

  3. #3Anonymous @ 2007-2-21 22:46

    Thanks so much for your help – I'm so non-IT literate so didn't know where to start except to google SKU111.CAB – hugely indebted to you!!
    Nicki

  4. #4Anonymous @ 2007-7-13 23:56

    It actually did not help – my error occurred once I did “automatic upgrade” on my Microsoft….

  5. #5Anonymous @ 2007-8-5 23:38

    I have this problem since I deleted a username which looked suspicious. (name was made up of numbers and symbols).
    I am using office 2003 and can't locate the installation CD at the moment. I was hoping I could download SKU111.CAB and since my laptop can't find it, “give it to him”
    Can I download this single component or do I need the CD?
    JNZ

  6. #6Anonymous @ 2007-9-9 20:44

    Have the same issue – except I know I will never have my CD…my dog ate it…along with the Jawbone earpiece and my I Phone case.
    Yes, I still have the dog and I still have this problem so does anyone have a suggestion now? I'd be quite grateful.

  7. #7Anonymous @ 2007-9-9 22:35

    I found this solution and IT WORKS WITHOUT HAVING THE CD!!!!!!!!!
    # re: What to try when Office update can't find SKU111.CAB
    Monday, April 30, 2007 4:43 PM by bluecoast
    If you do not have the installation cd and want to solve this issue follow these steps: (works most of the time with all sku.cab files)
    1. Click on start==>run==>type “excel /s” without quotations and click
    ok.
    2. Once Excel is up in safe mode with the error message in front, hold
    down ctrl+Alt+Delete keys on your keyboard to bring the task manager up.
    3. Click on the processes tab==>look for msiexec.exe (only the one next
    to your user name), click on it and end the process.
    4. Excel should be running without an error message now==>close Excel in
    safe mode==>reopen it one more time in safe mode to check if it is
    opening with no error message.
    5. Close Excel /s and open Excel normally, it should work fine.

  8. #8Anonymous @ 2007-9-23 21:14

    Thanks, this worked perfectly. I thought I lost my Excel for good. Thanks again.
    Jen

  9. #9Anonymous @ 2007-11-9 20:34

    Thank u so much!!

  10. #10Anonymous @ 2007-12-2 08:34

    alternative solution: use open office to edit your office documents, downloadable for free here: http://www.openoffice.org/

  11. #11Anonymous @ 2007-12-6 11:32

    Thank you very much… worked perfectly as you described.

  12. #12Anonymous @ 2007-12-6 20:37

    I was facing the same trouble with outlook and this trick has worked!
    Enjoy!

  13. #13Anonymous @ 2007-12-9 17:23

    Thanks a lot Eric. My excel is now working without any issues. You post helped a ton. Thanks again

  14. #14Anonymous @ 2007-12-17 12:44

    that worked great!

  15. #15Anonymous @ 2008-1-1 18:10

    I had a similar problem as the original post, and was able to find the file by directing the installer to the SETUP directory.

  16. #16Anonymous @ 2008-1-3 10:16

    This is very clever, thanks a ton!

  17. #17Anonymous @ 2008-1-4 10:15

    Hey Anonymous
    Your solution works!
    Thank you so much

  18. #18Anonymous @ 2008-1-12 05:30

    Hey man Thanks for this…it really worked…u gotta great simple answer to all thanks

  19. #19Anonymous @ 2008-1-15 09:15

    YOU ROCK!!!

  20. #20Anonymous @ 2008-2-1 16:43

    Perfect. I wish all my troubleshooting searches were this successful.

  21. #21Anonymous @ 2008-2-3 13:28

    Muito obrigado pela ajuda finalmente o EXCEL ja esta a funcionar correctamente,
    Thank you very much for you help finaly the EXCEL is working correctely
    I'm writing from portugal
    Eduardo

  22. #22Anonymous @ 2008-2-5 21:09

    I attempted this solution with Outlook 2003 and it didn't work.
    When I ended the process an error message came up “Error 1311. Source file not found: C:\MSOCache\All Users\90000409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9\L2561412.CAB. Verify that the file exists and that you can access it.”
    I can either Retry and get the same error, or cancel and continue the endless loop of installation attempts.
    I used system restore which led me into this mess. I'm at college so the problem is my Office disks are hundreds of miles away. Anyone have any solutions apart from road tripping or mailing the disks?

  23. #23Anonymous @ 2008-2-18 22:25

    This fix for SKU111.CAB worked perfectly. You are a genius and now in my will.

  24. #24Anonymous @ 2008-2-27 13:20

    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

  25. #25Anonymous @ 2008-2-28 13:03

    I'm having this same problem also after a system restore. I get the error message with all my MS Office 2003 programs. Anybody got another solution?

  26. #26Anonymous @ 2008-3-9 23:14

    Thank you so much, I bought my laptop in the Uk and a friend installed all of the software and I life in Thailand and use the laptop for work…. you have just saved me going out to buy a new laptop THANK YOU!!!! :O)
    You are a technical guru!

  27. #27Anonymous @ 2008-3-28 09:44

    Man you're A W E S O M E !!!!!

  28. #28Anonymous @ 2008-3-29 07:34

    Thanks a million!

  29. #29Anonymous @ 2008-3-30 18:09

    Worked like a charm – Thank you!!!

  30. #30Anonymous @ 2008-4-14 04:26

    pamdeboy!
    U r the GENIUS! Works like magic!

  31. #31Anonymous @ 2008-5-2 15:13

    that fixed it!! thank you so much for posting this.

  32. #32Anonymous @ 2008-5-10 15:00

    Thanks!!! Amazing – was close to despair.

  33. #33Anonymous @ 2008-5-14 10:06

    I was getting the same thing, so I tried ending the “SYSTEM” process instead of just the “Username” process. This made the recurring problem stop while Excel continued to run in safe mode. When I closed and opened Excel in safe mode again, the problem came back. I killed the system process again and closed safe-mode Excel. I then opened Excel normally (no safe mode) and had no problem.
    So, if you are experiencing the recurring Error even after trying pamdeboy's method, I suggest the following:
    1. Start Excel in safe mode as described above. (Click on start==>run==> type: excel /s )
    2. Start the task manager with ctrl+Alt+Delete
    3. In the task manager select: “Processes” tab , Select the line: msiexec.exe SYSTEM , then click “end process”.
    4. Close safe-mode Excel.
    5. Open Excel normally (click the start menu file or desktop icon or whatever)
    Good luck!
    And thanks a ton for getting us started, pamdeboy! :)

  34. #34Anonymous @ 2008-6-6 14:43

    That worked awesome…thanks!

  35. #35Anonymous @ 2008-6-23 17:55

    merci beaucoup
    ça marche!!!
    Many thanks

  36. #36Anonymous @ 2008-7-2 16:40

    Thanks. That worked perfect. I was at the lake and that fix saved me a trip back home to grab the disc. Thanks again.
    James

  37. #37Anonymous @ 2008-7-10 16:50

    Worked a treat
    - I copied the Outlook2007 CD into a folder on the desktop
    - Then I ran it from the folder
    - When I hit the error D:\sku111.cab error
    - I just put my original office install CD into the drive and it completed the install no problem

  38. #38Anonymous @ 2008-7-14 17:03

    thanks man! you were on it!

  39. #39Anonymous @ 2008-7-15 21:08

    Thank you so much this was so an easy solution even a end user like me with no knowledge of how to repair a computer was able to do thank you again.

  40. #40Anonymous @ 2008-7-16 15:21

    OMG I WOULD KISS YA IF I COULD!! THANKS FOR THE HELP!! WOOHOOO!! I struggled two days with this sku111.cab error trying to figure it out. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

  41. #41Anonymous @ 2008-7-17 11:30

    This totally rocks!! i was about to loos this client over this! now we are both heros!!!!!!

  42. #42Anonymous @ 2008-7-22 09:45

    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! You saved me! Have a good one!
    Kim

  43. #43Anonymous @ 2008-7-24 03:08

    OMG, you are the BEST!!! Two days of hell and lost productivity and BS answers from Microsoft that didn't work! And my spouse works there, LOL!!!

  44. #44Anonymous @ 2008-7-28 00:53

    I was trying to install SP2 for office 2k3 & that message came up.. followed your instructions & it continued.. thanks for the help your an absolute legend.. Like others have said below.. Its good to see that we can get the correct answer every now and then. I hope you make millions :P

  45. #45Anonymous @ 2008-8-14 21:20

    Thanks so much!! I didn't even want to begin to search for my CD's. I am up and running in Excel…

  46. #46Anonymous @ 2008-8-30 23:40

    That was such a brilliantly simpl way of solving this frustrating problem. Thank you so much! Your are Awesome!!!!

  47. #47Anonymous @ 2008-9-3 13:20

    The problem here was that our DVDs (MSDN) have SP2 built-in to the install but Microsoft Update upgrades the apps to SP3. To free disk space we delete a lot of the NtUninstall data, which is where I believe the missing CAB was. That said, I have a couple other systems where we haven't done a purge and sku111.cab wasn't in the file system on them either. No clue. It works. I'm happy.
    Thanks for the tips.

  48. #48Anonymous @ 2008-9-8 10:17

    greatest advise ever. Thanks!

  49. #49Anonymous @ 2008-9-29 23:01

    Thanks for this – it gave me the clues I needed.
    I was upgrading from Office Pro 2003 to Office Enterprise 2007 and struck this problem. Looks like sku111.cab is on the 2003 Pro CD so swapped CDs when the message came, hit Try Again, then after a few seconds swapped CDs back.
    I suspect the 2007 install does a 2003 uninstall and requires the old CD to finish the removal of 2003 programs.

  50. #50Anonymous @ 2008-10-17 11:46

    a life saver. works perfectly now. thank you!!!!

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