Install Message on Each App Open (2007)

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We have a PC that has Office 2007 loaded. A few months ago shortly after installation of Office 2007 the user started getting the the Windows installer message “Preparing to Install…” and it takes a substantial amount of time to open Word or another of the Office 2007 apps. The PC previously had Office 2003 on it so I totally uninstall Office 2007, and removed the Compatibility pack that was still on the PC. Couldn’t find any remnant of Office 2003 remaining. It wasn’t long before the user started getting the Install message on app open again. I have remove Office 2007 two or three times so know that’s not the solution. I get a similar message on my PC when I’ve been in Office 2003 and then open Office 2007 ( have both apps on my computer.) Any suggestions on what my next step should be? Just a simple reinstall obviously doesn’t work. Thanks for any help you can give me on solving this frustrating problem.

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See Information about using 2007 Office suites and programs on a computer that is running another version of Office for information on why it is happening. You try the Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility to cleanup any remnants of Office 2003.

Joe

--Joe

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Joe, I have already run the installer clean-up and there was no improvement. I did that just before installing Office 2007 for about the third time after removing the prior install. Any other suggestions? Do I need to do a registry clean and what tool would be best for that? I’m at a loss for the next step short of reformatting and reinstalling everything, which would be a major production on this particular PC.

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It is possible that user profile for your user has no permissions to modify Windows registry, and Office 2007 was installed from another profile without proper procedure for such configuration.

If operating system is Windows XP, reinstall Office 2007 from user account with Administrator rights from APPWIZ.CPL.
The proper procedure is: from APPWIZ.CPL select “Add New Programs” > “CD or Floppy” > Next > Browse > navigate to Setup.exe > Open > Finish.

If operating system is Windows Vista, reinstall Office from the account with appropriate rights using elevated Administrator rights.
The proper procedure is: in Windows Explorer navigate to Setup.exe, right-click it and from pop-up menu select “Run as Administrator”.

It is also possible, that security patches for Office were installed from the account without Administrator rights.
Reinstall all patches (including Service Packs, if applicable) from the account with Administrator rights.

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Hi, I’m an administrator on everything and have full permissions to modify and I’m the one who has been installing Office 2007 on this PC so your first paragraph does not apply. It is a Windows XP system so could reinstall once again, but please tell me why you’d use Add/Remove Programs instead of letting the DVD or CD do an automstart or select from the autostart key, we purchase our software through Microsoft Select and use select CD’s that have the autorun feature.

Allso all security patches are pushed from SMS on our network and of course administrator rights are inherent in those updates. Soo… I’m still at a loss as to what the next step should be.

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“Why you’d use Add/Remove Programs instead of letting the DVD or CD do an automstart”

Because in the former installation will be made for “All Users” rather than current user.

“I’m still at a loss as to what the next step should be.”

Track which changes in the Registry were made when user executed winword.exe (or excel.exe, etc.) and “Installing MS Office…” popped up.
Determine which processes at that moment consume most resources.
Check event log for errors.

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