What is the setting of .MST file? Is it to run setup Complete, or Typical, or in 1st usage? Also did you included the result of the office shrinker directly to the XP source, or you made an add-on using 7-zip? or you did made an .sfx using Winrar? All these must be answered to find a solve. And why all that Qs were take place? Simply what happened with you is because setup is looking for files during installation but did not find it. So to make sure that the required files exist, setup must find it when they are needed, but when the target is an add on or .sfx; setup will not be able to get required files. Also for good result you can choose complete setup when you setting the .mst file with ORK. I hope that I did not missed a thing or said something wrong, but I want to let you get the idea or the logic behind it. Experts here, please correct me if I was wrong. Thanks