“this application must be installed to run”

Hi all, hoping someone can help…on a client computer (Win XP Pro SP2, MS Office 2000 Pro) i am getting an error:

“this application must be installed to run. please run setup from the location where you originally installed the application.”

I have tried a few times repairing office, reinstalling office from CD, removing completely and deleting “microsoft office” folder from Program Files. Can’t think of anything else, articles on MS website don’t work or don’t apply. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

PS i’m currently checking for spyware/malware etc in case that might be causing a problem