Most notoriously, the antivirus program on your PC or any firewall in your network can cause this. As such, you will either need to tweak them by adding an exception or temporarily disable the said programs to allow the installation to complete. In this article, we will take you through the various methods needed to resolve the error code in question, so follow along.
1. Use the Offline Installer
One of the first ways you can get around the error code in question is to use the offline installer. By default, when you download the installer for Office, it only downloads the installer on your computer, and not all of the files required to install Office. This is because the installer is used to download the latest Office files via your network connection to be installed on your computer. While this saves you from the trouble of downloading a huge setup file, the installation essentially takes longer because the files are downloaded on the go. In contrast, you can use the offline installer as well to install Office on your PC. This allows you to install Office without an active internet connection once you have downloaded the installer since all of the files come with the initial download. To use the offline installer, simply sign in to your account on the Office website and download the offline installer instead of the typical setup file. The offline installer is usually located under the Other options section on the Installs page of the Office website. Once you download the installer, run the setup file respective to your Windows architecture (x86 or x64) to proceed with the installation.
2. Use Another Network Connection
Another way you can overcome the error code while installing Office on your PC is to use a different network connection. This can act as a quick fix when your current network connection is unable to resolve the request to the Microsoft Office servers. There are numerous reasons that can cause this behavior, and if you are looking for an easy fix, using a different network connection would be the right choice for you. You can achieve this by using your mobile’s hotspot for mobile data and connecting to the network on your computer. Use the new connection to run the Office setup file and see if the problem persists.
3. Disable Antivirus (Temporarily)
A security program running in the background on your PC alongside the Office setup file can be another cause for the error code in question. This happens when the antivirus program prevents the Office setup from establishing a connection to its respective servers. Such a scenario is quite common with the network security features in modern antivirus programs. In such an instance, you will need to disable the antivirus app on your PC temporarily till the Office setup is completed. If you do not want to disable the antivirus program, you have the option of adding the setup file as an exception to your antivirus settings. This will prevent the security app from interfering with the setup file, and it should be able to proceed without any issues.
4. Turn off VPN (if applicable)
If you are using a VPN connection on your computer, that can also cause the mentioned error code while installing Office. VPN programs often use tunneling that essentially routes your network traffic through several secure servers before reaching the destination. This can result in the packet sometimes getting lost or the end server dropping the connection which results in the 30174-4 error code. To resolve this, you will need to turn off any VPN connection you are using. If you have added a VPN client to Windows, follow the instructions below to disconnect it:
5. Disable Firewall
A firewall in your network can also prevent the setup file from connecting to Office servers which results in the issue in question. This is because firewalls are used to manage and monitor the incoming and outgoing requests in your network or device, depending on their level of implementation. As such, you will need to disable the firewall for a little while till the installation is complete. We are going to show you how to disable the Windows Defender Firewall below. However, if you have any other firewalls on the network level, you will have to add an exception or disable them temporarily. Follow the instructions below to disable the Windows Firewall:
6. Remove Older Office Installations
Finally, if you have an older version of Microsoft Office installed on your system while you try to run the setup file for a newer version, it can cause the problem to occur. To remedy this, you will need to uninstall and remove files of the older Office installation on your computer. Uninstalling Office from your PC is quite easy. In case the problem persists after you uninstall any older version of Microsoft Office, you will need to perform a thorough uninstall depending on your Office version. You can read the linked official Microsoft documentation for this. Follow the instructions below to uninstall Microsoft Office: You should be able to get past the 30174-4 error code with the methods above. Your internet connection is the primary cause of the issue in question. As such, ensuring the Office connection is not being blocked in your network should help you prevent the issue in future.
