[updated 9:50 22nd July to include link to stop install dialog coming up when installing both Office

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Genius! My laptop thanks you for this tip, as it was about to be launched out of a 2nd floor window!

Hi David,

Many thanks for the tip.  I was trying to setup for VSTO and realized that I'll need the 2003 & 2007 versions of office to try out a few of the features.

Had few follow up questions,

1) Can you do this in a common area so as to be applicable to all the 2003 office apps installed ?

2) Will the same registry entry under HKLM, prevent the repair for all users on the system .. ?

3) Also, is the same registry entry applicable for Office 2007 ?

Thanks,

Ritesh

Hi David,

Right now I only have co-existence for 2003 Word and 2003 Excel with Office 2007.

I did repeat the word registry procedure for excel and it worked correctly.

The questions I asked were more of a curiosity to see if there might be a blanket way of controlling the repair behaviour with 2 versions of office installed.

Thanks,

Ritesh

David,

Im stuck and getting very frustrated. I read your blog uksbsguy.com/.../how-to-get-rid-of-the-installer-configuration-dialog-when-running-office-2007-and-office-2003-on-the-same-system-for-vista-and-other-versions-of-windows.aspx and have a simmilar problem, but your soultion did not solve it unfortatnatly. I am running Vista and have been running office 2007 for some time with no problems. I am now very frustrated with 2007 so i installed 2003 without uninstalling 2007. Then the problems started. I then uninstalled 2007 and have even tried uninstalling 2003 and reinstalling it. when all versions of office were uninstalled, i ran CCLeaner (registry cleaner) and Office Removal Wizzard from the ORK tools. With both versions of Office uninstalled, i have no problems. However once i install just 2003, It comes back. What is happening is anytime i click on anything (i.e. my computer, IE explorer etc...) i get the pop up box, please wait while windows configures microsoft office 2003 Professional.) If i let it run, it goes over and over and over again. if i click cancel 4-5 times very quickly it goes away until the next time i click on something. I currently (somehow got into Outlook but that message pops up a few times before i can do anythig. Sometimes when i actually get into outlook i get the message, MAPI32.dll is missing or corrupt. Not sure if you can help but i would really really apreciate any advise you have. I have spent almost an entire day working on this computer researching the web, technet, microsoft, etc...

Thanks,

Okay, my problem is similar, but not exactly the same.  Whenever I try to access "help" from within any application in ffice 2007 (on Vista), the configuration starts running.

Any ideas?

I tried to add the HKEY as you have indicated but since I have only visio 2003 and visio 2007 co-exist on xp. I changed Word to Visio and checked that the Dword is added in regedit. However this does not work. Each time visio 2003 will still register itself, and so will visio 2007 of course. Any suggestion? Thanks.

Hi David,

I only have office 2003 and everytime i start the installer dialog box always appears on the screen worst is when i what to open excel i cannot go through if i will not use word to open it.

Hi David,

I've run MS Professional Plus 2007 on Vista for a couple of months with no problem . On 15 Aug 07, an update patch from Microsoft was run & installed. Since then, everytime i start any Office programs (Words, Excell, Outlook, etc), the installer dialog box always appears. Even though the programs works with no problem, this dialog box has slowed down my work & i find it very disturbing.

Any help to fix this problem? Thanks

Im still getting this issue.

I updated the 2003 instalation with the 2007 enterprise, and now, everytime i open an office aplication the Windows Installer screen appears and i get the configuration screen again. and it takes up to 5 minutes.

I try almost all tips on the net about it. Reinstall office, remove 2003 and later install 2007, reinstall 2007, change registry permissions, and now this tip. but, im still receive the scren all the time.

Any Other sugestion?

Trish: Your problem apparently not much different from mine. I did a lot of browsing to find the cure & found this link: support.microsoft.com/.../290301 I believe it will solve your problem.  

It can't solve my problem coz it says in the note:

*** NOTE: The Windows Installer Clean Up Utility should not be used to remove the 2007 Microsoft Office System installation information. ***

Any update on this fix for Office 2007, Dave?

Trish, u may want to look at this link also:

support.microsoft.com/.../265194

Hope it helps

I have vista on my pc. Had office 2007 but didn't like the options so uninstalled it. Now i installed office 2003 on it. It installed i can run it. But every time i open any application office windows installer starts running i have to click on cancel inorder for the application to come up even office application have same issue.

Please help i tried your registry trick didnt help.. please help im so much frustrated..

I also have had the problem in having the windows installer show up every time I start a Microsoft Office 2000 program.  I went to the Microsoft website as suggested above and followed the instructions - none helped.  But there was a strange step at the very end of the instructions which suggested renaming msaccess.exe to something else - like oldmsaccess.exe - and then run access from the shortcut in your start menu.  The installer would show up - (as usual) but the NEXT time it didn't.  BINGO.

Still Word and Excel had the problem - so I renamed them both to oldexcel and oldwinword.  started each closed each and then restarted each - IT WORKED.

this is really beginning to piss me off, i have vista home premium and office 2007 enterprise, i have searched high and low for a solution but had no luck. i am plagued with the forementioned dialog boxes and cannot get rid of them, i recently bought a laptop with a trial of office 2007 H&S edition on it and it also contains works 8.5. i need to get rid of these bloody boxes, i do not need to configure office everytime i load it. is there a way to fully irradicate this problem?

Hello Mr. David,

I have the same problem as mr Chris Harrod.

Windows Vista Home Premium, I have in my system Works 8.5 and PowerPoint Viewer 2003. It came installed in my system. No other versions installed.  I installed Office 2007 Enterprise and I got the same problem as mr. Chris says.

I run Microsoft Office Diagnostic and got no errors  as  results. I didn't try the fix above because I'm not sure if it works in this situation and I'm afraid of blowing my system up :-)

All the last updates from Microsoft are installed.

I hope you can help. Thank you.

Nascimento

Mr. David,

I tried it and it didn't work.  I'll keep searching...

Thank You

Hey David, I also tried this key, but am using Microsoft Office 2007 Pro Plus, on Microsoft Windows Vista Home 32-bit.

Insertion of the key didn't work, although instead of Office\11.0\ I tried using Office \12.0\ since that was the registry folder my office was using. After doing this, it still didn't work and I'm still continuously seeing the "please wait while windows is configuring..." message when starting up Microsoft Word.

If it helps, when I go directly into the Program Files\Office12\ and open Winword.exe, it opens up immediately without the installer. This applies for Excel and PowerPoint as well. It only happens when I use the Start Menu shortcuts.

Any other suggestions to fix this issue? You may also e-mail me at: <removed>

I did what Jeff Lin said after applaying your sugestion and it works as described by Jeff.... At least for word, the only one I changed then, I think I have to make it to every program from Office.... or not ? ( I'm sorry for my poor english)

Just a tip... I had the exact problem w/ 2K7 and 2K3 coexisting.  The registry key above did not work initially.  However, when I changed 11.0 to 12.0:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

It worked without a hitch and got rid of that horrible configuration dialog!

Hey,

I just got a new Dell Laptop with Vista Home Premium 32-bit. I installed MS Office 2007 Enterprise Ed. After installation, every time I tried to start Word, PPT, or Excel from the shortcuts made my installation, Windows Installer pops up (Please wait while it gathers info..). After doing some research, I delete shortcuts, and created new ones from Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office12, and now those work fine while I open any of the three apps. However, when I try to open an existing document, it still pops up!!! It's getting sooo annoying! Any ides? Please reply or e-mail me at patelumang@gmail.com

thanks so much for that lauren, changing the 11.0 to 12.0 made it work for me as well.  Thanks soooooooooo much.  I am forever gratefull (at least until my xp becomes bloated and I reinstall, only to have the same problem, and forget where I found the sloution).

Jubii - that has been pestering me for 7 years.

I still use word 97 for all web-editing. That makes clean code making copy+paste into wysiwyg-editors.

Why didn't I try to fix it earlier????

Wow, I'm trying to find a solution to this issue for days. I'm glad that I'm not alone but it's bad no one found a threat. I'll describe my problem anyway :

Im running Windows Vista Home since it came with my Laptop : Dual core, 2 go of ram. I got Office 2007 on it for a few month and it has always worked fine ! Recently I had to learn Project 2007 for my job so I installed the Pro version of it and than the problem started. The install process went well but when Project launch it goes through the Configuring Process and finally shows a message "There's not enough memory to run..." ?? With more than 1.2gb free ram....

So I decided to uninstall the whole Project and Office Suite, clean the registry and rerun the installation again. Since then, every program shows the configuration screen on launch but finally starts : Outlook, Excel, Word Etc...

- Project never worked on this Vista pc but does on my old p4 3.0 with 512mb of ram running XP.

- Outlook runs the configuration process everytime messages comes in.

- Outlook sometimes show a message about a VBA add-in it can run.

- Word, Excel and Outlook starts fine when opened directly from the WINWORD.exe file in Office12 directory.

- .doc files didn't open by clicking on it until I checked the "Use this program every time"

Doing the NoReReg DWORD resolve the configuration process problem on Word but there's still a 10sec of Office Enterprise configuration process before it opens up.

I've done the uninstall / install process a few times with reg cleaning as well and it didn't help. Hope someone can solve this Office problem, I tried so man theat that didn't work.

Dave : Do you have any idea what my Project Pro 2007 memory problem can be ?

All : If you resolve your Office problem lime mine, please share !

Followed Lauren's suggestion -

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Works for all of them except MS Access still brings up that configuration dialog box.

same problem the reg fix worked for me (i am using xp pro) but can not fix the access problem any more suggestions?

Mr. Mike Williams,

Please would you let me know if this fix suggested by Lauren worked to you ?

I have the same problem and the only program I got to work well was word, and even this program I got to open without a problem using a new shortcut I created, as told by mr. Lin.

The usual shortcut doesn't work well.

My system is  Vista as well.

Thank you

Dear David

Regards the fix for Word 2003 and 2007, I tried replacing 'Word' with 'Visio' but it still shows the EULA.  Any ideas on how to sort this out?

Many thanks

My problem is very similar to that as others.

1) i had vista standard with office 2003 installed

2) we upgraded office to office 2007 standard

3) the configuration installer now appears each time when starting word, excel, powerpoint, outlook

4) used the fix by Lauren, now word, powerpoint, excel will start normal, but when starting outlook the config installer still shows for a few minutes and outlook eventually starts. First time round though outlook fires up ok, 2nd time the installer shows. I've run the tool thats on the MS site aswell. Any idea's?

Hey figured out a good and easy way to fix this problem as mentioned above if you go to program files and click on the appropiate applications exe file it will load without the config screen coming up. so in order to fix the shortcut links in the start menu with vista you need to open up my computer and type the following into the address bar

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office

this directory is hidden so once this is open you will also need to open up this window as well

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

once both are open then you need to go into the office 12 folder and left click and drag the .exe files for each of the programs ie  winword.exe msaccess.exe, etc into the other folder that is open.

once you have dragged the .exe files you can then copy the name of the old shortcuts to the new ones and erase the old short cut once this is done the new shortcuts you created will now launch the program without running the configure setup again.

have fun dragging and dropping

dave

Hi David,

I have installed Office 2007. My problem is that evertime I open Visio 2007, Windows Installer appears and configures. When I close Visio a error report and "so called Solution by Windows Vista Premium" appears which does not work, Do you have a solution for this ?

Ajay

Thanks a lot to providing a solution

This method seems to work very well, with the exception of Access of course. Unfortunately for me, Access is the only program that I care about regarding this problem... The other solutions given in the comments seem to do the trick on their own, but again Access seems to be left out.

If you were to google this problem, you'll find a large amount of people having the same issue. Perhaps it is something Microsoft will patch in the future?

I've tried solutions here but the only thing that workewd for me was, strangely, making new shortcuts from the .exe . However, I am still getting the installer running everytime I download an email. ...That's each email..!   I had a previous install of Office 2003, As far as I can tell that's been uninstalled. Any thoughts.?Thanks   dh

Hi David,

Firstly thanks for the tips, those have sorted mostly all the installer windows except for Excel, which comes up with a message box with "stdole32.dll". Once i click OK, the main installer window opens and starts installing (god knows what). With Outlook, I get the installer windows (smaller ones) for "every" incoming message, which is kind of annoying.

I am running Vista and Office 2007 standard. I have done the registry edits and the renewed the shortcuts.

Cheers

Hai

I have the problem when i start outlook 2007 word is working oke

What can i do  to fix the problem for outlook 2007

greetz Dungeon

Thank you for taking your time to help us.

If I understood it well Microsoft is aware of these issues. I hope they can fix them. I was intending to send an e-mail to the support, but since it is already known I don't think I should.

My Groove isn't working. I have no clue.

I have the Visio 2007 problem: I start it and it launches first the small installer windows, soon it's done and I can use it.

and also the Project 2007 problem, it launches the big quadrangular installer window, the one typical of Office installation, it says it needs to configures Project, I noticed it's a loop suicidial procedure, cos if I have a normal Windows Vista configuration it tells me, after two cycles of the bar filling up, that my memory is finished; if I close everything and try to free as much memory as possible, it does three cycles and says the same error about the memory. So I guess even 100 cycles wouldn't solve the problem.

This two problem are very different. Microsoft cannot selle software at 600 euros that are plagued with these defects.

Please help me out....

I FOUND IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[moderated by uksbsguy ] www.larmib.com/selfhelp.aspx?articleID=21&kbID=1

This link turns of much of the security in the registry and BREAKS peoples systems - I have left it here so no-one can accuse me on censorship, but I personally consider it bad and people have had to rebuild their PCs after using it.  I've checked the commands and all they do is allow anything in your user to write all over the registry.  This is not a need of Office and it means that another program is causing both a security and an Office issue

It worked on both issues!!!!

These fixes do NOT fix the issue in Outlook for Office 2007.  Each time outlook starts you get the config screen. You can cancel this config screen or not, then outlook runs ok, but the config screen will not dissapear. By the way, I think this issue is due to one of the Office Updates because it didn't start for me until I ran the techConnect beta of SP1 for Office 2007. prior to that I had not installed any updates to office at all.  All my other parts of Ofc 2007 run fine without any config screen.

I followed the directions detailed in this blog, but my outlook kept reinstalling or giving me an error MSVCR80.DLL is missing. If i replaced it it then gave another error. However i have now cured my problem, my system has the acer e security stuff on it. I followed the directions below. Rebooted my system and all was ok. I have done this now on 5 machines and all work ok.

In step 3 the addin refer's to acer edata security,you may have a few others, just leave them alone. If you don't have the edata security in your setup then this probably wont help you.

Anyway , best of luck

steve

1. open the regsitry editor

2. got key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\

3. Locate the add-in

4. set the LoadBehavior to 0

Legba, you are my hero!!!!!  It finally worked. Thanks so much!!  Now Outlook opens correctly!!!  

Legab, you aren't my hero afterall :(

Well after reboot, my vista system was borked. many services wouldn't start, no restore points were accessible and I couldn't repair it. had to ghost back to an earlier date. So Outlook problem remains.  Still need a solution.  Is it possible that that fix could be scaled back to only effect Office stuff only?

Legab, you aren't my hero afterall :(

Well after reboot, my vista system was borked. many services wouldn't start, no restore points were accessible and I couldn't repair it. had to ghost back to an earlier date. So Outlook problem remains.  Still need a solution.  Is it possible that that fix could be scaled back to only effect Office stuff only?

Ive just done the Legba solution. Seems to work fine. but I haven't rebooted yet. now im scared to.

well - rebooted and yes loads of services like sound and graphics driver not loading.. couldn't even read from a cd. I went to a restore point and that did work. and back to that installer window popping up with every email sent or received. So near yet so far. Indeed, as Alan, says is there not a solution in here somewhere?

Yes the above method did fix the outlook config situation, well, that is before the system became unusable. So the theory is correct somehow in that fix, but the fix must go too deep and messes with things that have nothing to do with the problem.  Hopefully someone will figure this out in a safe way.  For now I have to cancel config each time I start Outlook in order to be able to use it.  Too bad M$ can't support this issue, huh . . ..

Ive given up on using Outlook for now. I'm using the free Mozzilla Thunderbird email client till there's a fix for this. Feels rough after installing such an expensive load of MS office and OS software. Maybe Office 2007 SP1 will fix it. Hmmmm

Actually SP1 is what caused my outlook config issue to begin with, and there was no uninstall for the SP1 beta that I could find.

Thanks, and done.  (fingers crossed)

OFFICE 2007 WORD FIX

ok guys ,this fix is strickly for solving the "instal/configuration loop"  that happens every time you start MS

OFFICE 'WORD 2007' .  Vista tested. As you know editing the registry can damage your system ,so take

precations.

First ,you need to make a new shortcut on the desktop ,

so right click the desktop /New/Shortcut and browse to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

\WINWORD.EXE" ,click next and give a new name e.g 'Working Word' and click finish. Right click the new

shortcut just made ,properties/compatibility tab /show setting from all users/ and tick Run this program as

an administrator /apply /ok / tick run this program as an administrator /apply /ok

click Start / Run (or hit Windows + R) and type REGEDIT into the Run dialog box and hit Enter.

Once within the registry, click the + to expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder

Scroll down and locate the Software folder and expand

Then Microsoft folder and expand

Then Office folder and expand

Then 12.0 folder and expand

Then Word folder and expand

Then click Options folder

With the Options folder selected ,click Edit > New > DWORD Value(32 or 64 depending on your OS)

This will insert a new registry key into the Options folder. This new key needs to be renamed ,so carefully type

the following as the name, exactly as shown:  "NoRereg" ,without quotes.

Then Hit the Enter

Now double click this new key to open it. The dialog box below will display. The Value data will read 0 by

default. Change that setting to the number 1 and click OK to accept that value.

Then close the registry ,and try starting WORD.

This works for word 2007 only ,it seems that somehow there are two versions of MS Office 2007 on my

system ,and when you start an office application the install/configuration pops up trying work out which is

default and loops. This reg key is left over from when they were designing Office 2003 ,but left it unavailable ,it simply tells Word to not bother checking if it is the default Word program(in instances of you having multiple installations of Office) .The 'new shortcut' trick seems to also work for POWERPOINT,ONENOTE & PUBLISHER,  

it also stops the install/config loop for OUTLOOK at start but not for each email(wot a joke MS, i use

windows mail instead) .Excel starts but still has the "stdole32.tlb" problem then goes to configure ,but i just

cancel and Excel starts pretty quick .I hope this helps anybody who was suffering a massive delay when trying

to start WORD 2007 .It should also work  the same for XP machines and OFFICE 2003 problems. I dont use ACCESS.

Nunny, this did not fix my Outlook config problem. Outlook is the only program I have issues with. I placed the reg entry in both word and outlook and it didn't help, so I still need an Outlook fix.  Boy, this really sucks . . .   :(

By the way, running outlook with /safe tag doesn't help.

nice tip but it didnt work for me.. my problem is with outlook, it pops up the windows installer asking for the visual studio CD.

We are having a user experience this while working in Sharepoint.  Every time they click on pretty much anything in Sharepoint, they get this installer.  It is only on the screen for a couple of seconds and then goes away.  We are running office 2003, but do have Sharepoint Designer 2007 also installed on that machine.  The OS is Vista Business.  How do I know which application is causing this?

I am having the same problem. Everytime I open any office 2007 product minus Outlook 2007 it wants me to re-install/reconfigure it. I have tried all of you solutions but noene work for me. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

הטוב, הרע והמכוער מתקיני Office 2007 מתחלקים ל- 3 קבוצות: &quot;הטובים&quot; - אלו שפשוט התקינו Office

I´m just wondering how many people experienced this, cause I had the same trouble with VISTA and office 2007. Why we had to do all of this? Isn´t it MICROSOFT job? It´s weird that I had to went trough all of this things to solve this problem.  I also want to thank to all of you for helping me!

rename setup.exe to .old in this folder:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller

and try again.

Itried all the fixes listed. None of them worked. I even tried installing out look separate rom office 2007 enterprise and the only thing different is now it tries to configure outlook and not office enterprise.

Nice blog and comes up to the top of every Google search I have tried :)

I have Outlook 2007.  I get this dialog every time I get a new email.  I also get it when I initiate some of the other Office 2007 elements like Word.  I tried your registry edits to no avail.

The plot sickens actually.  When I install Office 2007 SP1, I not only get the annoying "Configuring Office 2007" small box but I also will get the larger (and longer) box.  I must have uninstalled and reinstalled 5 times yesterday with different ideas.  I followed one lengthy process on Microsoft;s site on how to manually uninstall.  Didn't help.

When I installed this AM, I checked the "Run from Computer" options.  I did NOT install SP1 but I still get the small boxes every time I read an email.

I would SERIOUSLY appreciate someone's help.  I would even ditch Office but I really do need it for too many things.  Thanks alot.

I had he same problem which I had to use these combination to get rid off "Configuring" pop up everytime I start office apps:

1. Apply registry fix as suggested on this post on all office apps

2. Recreate the start menu using method described above

3. Remove/rename setup.exe on

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller  to fix excel 2007.

but I am still getting stdole32.tlb pop up.

I think the only real fix for this is to reinstall windows and then office 2007. This must be related to some deep or hidden registry error or corrupted file that appears to be extremely hard to pin down.  My advice is to not apply any patches or sp1 to office until they find (if ever) the root cause of this.

This last post in this link makes sense to me re: the stdole32 error:  www.pcreview.co.uk/.../thread-1052421.php

hey guys, this is happening to me with excel,

running xp with 2007 installed, word seems fine and outlook is ok, only give me the configuration screen everytime i run excel, none of the above seems to have worked?

suggestions?

thankyou.

six

Just unistalled Office 2007 and returned to Office 2003. Problem got worse. Constantly cycling the installer. I've had to now uninstall all Office software. A lamentable state of affairs that this prob persists.

I PREFER Outlook but sadly I had to convert to Thunderbird.

I have Windows VISTA but running Office 2003  sp2 Whenever I poen my e-mail i get into a loop . "Configuring Outlook". Over and over it appears and I am unable to cancel out unless I turn off the computer

I tried to uninstall Office 2003 but it will not let me. My intent was to reload the software. If I put the disk in I get a meesage Office 2003 already loaded.

Cheers David! This was a great fix and enabled to use both versions of Office successfully. Take Care and Thank You!

Well I finally took the plunge. .. Reinstalled Vista and Office 07... and all the rest of my programs. What a bore... but it worked.  So I guess that's it for me. We may never know why the World leader OS and Office software company lets this happen. amazing.

Thank you very much!!!! Great Web Site Owen!!, its allways uplifting to know about people that are willing to share this kind of info just for the Joy of benefeting others!!! I wish this philosophy would stick in my country, sadly it does not as ofthen as other countries.

PS the Solution for me was your Registfry command in your first section I have office 2007 installed and it worked fine!!

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Thanks so much.  This solved the problem!

I have vista home premium and office 2003.  Evertime I open any office app I get the "accept" end user agreement.  What can I do to get rid of this appearing?

Im having that stdole32.tlb issue when opening excel has anybody figures out a better way to fix the issue besides reformatting.

Any news on the Access fix?  I've got everything running smoothly apart from 03 and 07 Access trying to reconfigure themselves.  

TTFN

I created another account it does the same thing in that account.

[moderated by admin]

You can always do what this suggests, however others using this blog have found serious issues afterwards.  To explain what the commands using subinacl do is remove all protection from your systems registry - aka you "main configuration and information store" for ALL programs as well as the operating system.

It also means that while you are logged in - as administrator - any rogue piece of software can modify this information store - install a new application to run, steal data, add a "key logger" to send your bank details to someone else or many other things.  If there is a problem with the way the registry is set up and something is causing the errors you are seeing - removing all security is a dangerous way to fix it - why was it not being allowed to work - should it have been doing what it was trying to do?

I have asked before - if you are seeing issues like this, e-mail me and I will get a support call raised for free on this - I need to know which country you are in and how to contact you.

Now, feel free to try this at your own risk... look at people who have tried this before on this site though - many had to rebuild their PCs from scratch

I may have a solution to all this - as I have had the same problems experienced here- loading Office 2007 over the top of Office 2003- then Windows installer popping up as soon as you open Outlook or MS access - driving me to insane. Then i installed Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro - and the windows installer problems happened with that- so after looking at the adobe Forum i followed the instructions  that are listed under "Lux Gog - 2:49pm Jan 18, 08 PST (#34 of 36) " on this page : www.adobeforums.com/webx and even though i have not re-installed anything -not only is my Acrobat problem  solved but Outlook now opens, MS Access opens , Excel opens - all with NO INSTALLERS - all are fixed . There has to be some major flaw in default registry permissions set up by the vanilla Vista install ... Its goes without saying that you should back up your registry before doing this- which is what this guy advises.

I am from Canada. I have already Emailed You

Ah i did not really fully understand the security issues- so thanks for pointing that out . Have i now laid myself open to the attacks you mention, even though i have Norton Protection center running with its Firewall ?

well if there is anything else you need from me to help with just ask

I sent an e-mail to you (30.09.2007)  but no answer... :-(

I bet you're quite busy. And I do understand it and I'm glad you're trying to help us.

Please let me know the sort of information you need.

Can I ask why Microsoft has not responded with a real fix for this issue?

Hello Mr. Davi,

I'm really curious to know if there are any chances of getting these programs to work without any traumatic procedures like restoring the laptop to factory settings.

It had XP before and I got the upgrade to Vista for free from HP. I think I would mess it up if I try to get it running factort settings( so as it was sold), because during the upgrade to Vista I notice they  updated the Bios. I don't  want to get in trouble with this Bios stuff.

I would like to know if there are a fix to it.

Just, please , let us know what info is usefull to get it sorted.

I run a Vista Premium  and I installed Office 2007 Enterprise.

Thank you!

I've try to fix this problem.... and without any results :o(

And today your advices help me to solve this problem !!!!!

Thks  guys :o)

Henri Willox

Conakry (Rep of Guinea)

Anything new about the stdole issue

This worked well for me. However, I had to change my version to 12.0 instead of 11.0, as 11.0 did not exist in the registry.

Running Office 2007, on Vista.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I spent good money on Office 2007 but I kept having this re-install error every time I would start it up. It made the software unusable. I searched the internet on and off literally for months, and I found no solution. I found lots of others complaining of the same problem, but no one had an answer. Finally, I came across your blog discussing this issue. I have never had Office 2003 on my computer, so I thought that this fix would be a long shot. I figured it was worth a try, though. I tried it and it worked! Fantastic. Thank you so much for this fix. We need to get the word out about it so other people with this problem can get if fixed.

After reading through this forum I noticed someone mention that this only happens with the shortcuts generated when the software was installed. So I deleted the shortcuts and then navigated to the folder where the office files were located on the program files and created new shortcuts and the issue was resolved. I am running office 2007 on windows vista.

Just wanted to inquire if any solution has come out regarding the install box when switching between different versions of Access on the same computer.

Thanks

Thank you I also had the same problem opening a word document from an email. I have Office 2003 & Office Home and Student 2007 on my computer.

The fix works   Thank you! Thank you!

I have the "Reconfigure" problem with Outlook only (so far) and am not sure which of these fixes applies to me ... or can a support call be made to MS to resolve. Seems to go into a 3-4 time loop and then run ok. Same when running OL from exe or from shortcut. I am in US. hhdelk@gmail.com

Dear David,

I can't thank you enough for this resolution to this problem.  I work from home and having this issue with every file I open was putting me over the edge.

Many thanks from the other side of the pond.

I am having this same issue with MS Outlook 2007 and Vista Ultimate.  It's a brand new, Factory Reset version.  Load Office 2007.  Outlook goes into the infinite "configuration" loop.

I wonder if a Vista Reinstall, rather than just accepting the factory settings, would solve this issue?

I can email you more details if you need.  Thanks for the great and helpful site.  I am from Canada, by the way

About half way up this page.

alan said:

rename setup.exe to .old in this folder:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller

and try again.

And that worked for me.    And it seemed like no-one either tried it or replyed to it.

I tried that, but office keeps putting that file back in there after I rename it.

This problem is a pain, as I have 500 out of 1000 machines at the school I work at doing it. And the problem is some machines are getting old and are taking 10 minutes to do this stupid configuration thing.

Why hasn't microsoft made a fix yet?

I work at a public library that needs to provide both Word 2002 and 2007 for our public users. That dialog box that comes up when switching back and forth between them has been driving me (and everyone else) batty. I just saw your fix, tested it out on one of the 'frozen' hard drives (replacing Office 11.0 with 10.0, since we're using 2002 instead of 2003) and it worked like a charm. You, my friend, are a freakin' genius. Excuse me while I go thaw out a couple of dozen computers and work your magic on them. Thanks!  Laurie  BTW - we're running XP Pro

I'm having the same stdole32.tld problem as Adam with Exel Plus & Outlook come up with error: "Operation failed because of a registry or installation problem"  

Runny Office 2007, on vista.

installed Office 2003 & since then been having problems.

Tried the HKEY but didn't fx it

Hello David,

I have monitored your blog off and on for some time now hoping to find a solution to my Office 2007/Vista 64 problem, the ubiquitous 1) rolling re-setup  2) stbdole322 error.  For me in Office Excel 2007 only.  

A few months back having tried every suggested fix from your own site and numerous others I succeeded in getting and telephone and remote shared-access help from MS Support.  Prejudices aside, I have to say they were amazingly thorough and generous in the level of support they gave me (at no cost to me) which included several lengthy telephone sessions during some of which they shared control over my machine remotely. Over a period of a week or two three or four different support personnel/engineers spent 2-3 hours on my case. This included giving me a new programme and key to download.  Believe me they were determined to solve this issue and I was delighted to work along with them, in anticpation of nailing this problem once and for all.  

The outcome? No solution was found. They simply admitted they didn't know how to solve this one. They finally asked me to re-install Vista and my Office Small Business Suite.   I haven't done this yet but do intend to do it within the next two weeks when I will have a window of opportunity to rebuild my software.  My registry was such a mess in the end that I had to roll it back a couple of weeks to get productive again.

I share with your many readers a sense of frustration not to say incredulity that MS cannot get their own programme to work correctly on their own OS. What did I do to my registry in the first place that caused these errors to appear? It all worked fine at the start when I built my PC.  It all went pear-shaped when I re-installed Office to try and make a small problem go away Word 2007 wouldn't access online Help) . One clue MS gave me pointed to having the downloadable Trial version of Office 2007 on my system first. So whereas I've never had any earlier versions of Office on this machine it maybe finds remnants of the Trial version.  In concluding, there are several apps on my PC that when I go to start them Office tries to set itself up again as well or instead! Can you beat that?

So, yes, a full reinstall awaits and would have probably saved me countless hours of troubleshooting.  At least, I hope ....  

I just did what I feared to do.

I re-installed the system. I let the Norton  as last.

M. S. Office 2007 Enterprise works now as it should and I'm very glad.

Thanks to the sugestions from someone above.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I cannot tell you how much time I spent searching MS KB articles, news groups, tech support and google...... I could not find a solution to turn off that danged installer. You saved my day. Thanks again!

Suzanne

Hi,

This is what I've just done and this seems to work ok (at least for the time being...)

1) Go to the folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller

2) run setup.exe (ie click on setup)

3) the you get a menu that asks you if you want to repair Office, say yes

Then reboot

PROBLEMS SOLVED! As mentioned above I have now completed my Vista 64 re-install along with Office 2007 Small Business Ed.  It all went smoothly and all the problems I had (see above) simply went away.  

My OS now boots to Windows in about 25% of the time it did before. Yes, in about 1 min. Hey, I should have done this long ago. The hours wasted on troubleshooting!!?  Re-installing is not frustrating - only time-consuming.  Even a pleasure. I am left with the conclusion that I must have savaged my Vista installation somewhere along the line. It is now good to be enjoying Vista again!!  Long may it last.

But then ....

Warm greetings

Gareth

Hello

I was having the Stbdole issue using excel and other issues. And one moring I woke up and it was gone everything works fine now. Weird huh? Well thanks for your help anyway.

Adam

Just to add my bit - - I'm running Vista 64 Home Premium and Office 2007 Pro and both the Windows installer followed by the Office configuration program started when an Office application was opened.

The fix:

Follow Dave: press Windows Key & enter:  reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

That stops the configuration program for Word - repeat for other Office apps by changing Word for PowerPoint etc.

Open the Office application from its installation directory and not from the programs menu in Windows & it'll start fine.

I"m on Windows VistaI Enterprise 32 bit, and had the same problem.  As mentioned by others, if I use the shortcuts that were created when I upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007, then I get the configuration dialog every time.  However, if I navigate directly to the program file and click it or create a new shortcut, then it runs just fine.

Actually, I spoke too soon.  Replacing the shortcuts only worked for some of the office apps.  I tried the registry fix above, also did not work.  More about my situation:  I have Vista Enterprise and upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007 Premium.  I am _not_ trying to run both at the same time, and I still get the configuration window when trying to run any Office app.  They stay on screen for at least 10 minutes.  Now trying to completely remove office and re-install then try the various solutions listed here again.

Well, I'm at a lost. I'm running Vista 64 bit with Project and Visio 2007 and with Project 2007, I get the looping configuring installer and with Visio, I get the configuring for the first time dialogue box which whenever I cancel it at least goes into the application. Project on the other hand at some point tells me that I run out of memory.

I don't know what else to do or what fix is out there for this. Really really irritated. Anyone else can help with this specifically for a 64 bit machine?

Hi, I'm having the same problem as Ben:

Please help as it makes my computer almost unusable and, the only way to stop it is to uninstall, but when i reinstall it just makes the popup boxes when i try to open ANYTHING, like Word, Explorer, Control Panel, Firefox....Anything!

"Im stuck and getting very frustrated. I read your blog uksbsguy.com/.../how-to-get-rid-of-the-installer-configuration-dialog-when-running-office-2007-and-office-2003-on-the-same-system-for-vista-and-other-versions-of-windows.aspx and have a simmilar problem, but your soultion did not solve it unfortatnatly. I am running Vista and have been running office 2007 for some time with no problems. I am now very frustrated with 2007 so i installed 2003 without uninstalling 2007. Then the problems started. I then uninstalled 2007 and have even tried uninstalling 2003 and reinstalling it. when all versions of office were uninstalled, i ran CCLeaner (registry cleaner) and Office Removal Wizzard from the ORK tools. With both versions of Office uninstalled, i have no problems. However once i install just 2003, It comes back. What is happening is anytime i click on anything (i.e. my computer, IE explorer etc...) i get the pop up box, please wait while windows configures microsoft office 2003 Professional.) If i let it run, it goes over and over and over again. if i click cancel 4-5 times very quickly it goes away until the next time i click on something. I currently (somehow got into Outlook but that message pops up a few times before i can do anythig. Sometimes when i actually get into outlook i get the message, MAPI32.dll is missing or corrupt. Not sure if you can help but i would really really apreciate any advise you have. I have spent almost an entire day working on this computer researching the web, technet, microsoft, etc."

PLEASE HELP!

hi david,

its nice knowing you.

i m running vista home premium.

i was having office 2007 trial, once expired i uninstalled and installed another version of 2007, now since then i am having this problem... whenever i start word , excel installer startS and in excel it says stdole32.tlb cannot be loaded

i was having frontpage 2003 and office 2007... due to this problem i uninstalled both and then cleaned everything with registry cleaner and then again installed office 2007.. still same problem... i have not yet installed frontpage 2003..

this is very frustrating as its affects my work a lot and wastes time..

i will be very happy if you can give me your valuable suggestion to solve this problem...

thanks a million in advance.

I´ve tried everything there is on the web to fix the problem. I´ve spent 2 days installing, and reinstalling, i cant believe the solution was so simple!!

I just installed Officel 2007 Standard on my Vista 32 bit machine. Your fix for word worked. Then the problem started with Excel. I changed Word to Excel in your script and that didn't work.

Hi, quickly ran through this link but can't seem to find an answer to my problem, I had office 2003 on the machine and upgrade to office 2007, unfortunately I need to be able to use word 2003 as my clinical system that we use isn't word 2007 friendly and any mail merge documents even if saved in 2003 format won't work

Tried to re-install just the word element bu it keeps stating that another version is already installed and won't let me install word 2003 along side of 2007

is there a way round this? thanks

Hi David:

For sure, I have the same problem; with ALL office 2007 applications; I can live with that ; but I need to fix my

outlook 2007

please help

I have Vista

many thanks for ur help  

Hi, David

I have problem same solution,

System use ;

- Windows Vista

- Office Enterprise 2007

all system OK and Working, But

i install MS Office Frontpage 2003 (Full install from CD), After install it. have dialog box for "Windows Installer" running up at start any programs and anything. on dialog box show  "Please wait while Windows Configures Microsoft Office Frontpage 2003"

I try fix problem from comment, but same problem.

Pleaes help me,

Thank you, David

Great Blog.  Your suggestion worked perfectly for word 2007, but not for excel 2007.  Any suggestions?

Is this what the registry line should be:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Hi Folks..I am getting the update dialog for MS Office Visio Professsional 2003. Can anyone help me get rid of it?

Thanks,

Bonda

TOP MAN THANKYOU SO SO MUCH

DAVID SAID

Hey figured out a good and easy way to fix this problem as mentioned above if you go to program files and click on the appropiate applications exe file it will load without the config screen coming up. so in order to fix the shortcut links in the start menu with vista you need to open up my computer and type the following into the address bar

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office

this directory is hidden so once this is open you will also need to open up this window as well

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12

once both are open then you need to go into the office 12 folder and left click and drag the .exe files for each of the programs ie  winword.exe msaccess.exe, etc into the other folder that is open.

once you have dragged the .exe files you can then copy the name of the old shortcuts to the new ones and erase the old short cut once this is done the new shortcuts you created will now launch the program without running the configure setup again.

David, I have Vista Home Premium from the original trial version.  After it expired, I purchased it and Office 2007 Pro.  Excel 2007 and Word 2007 both open properly with no install/configuration issues.  Each time that I open Access 2007 I get the install/configure problem.  I tried your last suggestion, but two things happened. When  I tried to drag the .exe to the other folder a message said that I could not place a shortcut here.  I placed the shortcut on the desktop and when I tried to execute it.  I got the same install/configure problem.  I then followed up on the suggestion referred to above February 1, 2008 10:47 PM by Boyd R regarding "Lux Gog - 2:49pm Jan 18, 08 PST (#34 of 36)"  Although, that post refers to Vista, the link does not.  While it seems to be a resonable solution, I am afraid to do it.  Have I just done something wrong in trying to follow your instructions or is there a step left out?  This old geezer would surely appreciate your help.  Thanks, Ken

Regarding : Phil Brighton said:

TOP MAN THANKYOU SO SO MUCH

DAVID SAID

June 8, 2008 7:42 PM

I tried the creating new shortcut mentioned above and it did not work for me.  Each time that I enter Access 2007, Office 2007 Professional  goes through the configuration process.  My Emachine came with Home and Student Premium  trial version installed.  I let the trial period elapse.  Later purchased Office 2007 Upgrade Professional.  All seemed to work ok, except Access causing Office 2007 Pro continually configuring.  I spent the day yesterday on the phone with Microsoft support fellow in India whose accent was difficult for an old fellow to understand.  We completely(?) removed Office 2007 and reinstalled.  Did not fix the problem.  I am not at all comfortable with making changes to the registry, so will only attempt this with someone holding my hand.  Microsoft is supposed to call me back this afternoon to see if their efforts panned out.  They may try a little more, but will likely hand me off to the guys that charge for help.  I don't know if this is relevant or not, but thought that I would mention the following.  When we reinstalled Office 2007, the Start Menu shortcuts for Excel, Word, Windows Mail, and Outlook appeared above the line in Bold print, But Access did not appear.  However, they do all appear in the Microsoft Office folder below the line.  Does this tell you anything?  Does this indicate that Access did not install in the same manner as Excel, Word, etc.?  I sure could use some help in resolving this problem.  I have entered this in your Leave a Comment section, because I don't know how to participate in this blog.  

I spent more time with Microsoft today and they handed me off to their Access Department.  I am supposed to hear from them tomorrow.  Right now I do not have much confidence that they will properly solve the problem.This might interest you--They went to Control Panel and tried to change Office 2007 Professional.  They tried to select Access to run all on this computer.  It would not activate.   I am telling you this from memory, because the (maybe) solution that I found disables Office12 setup and with it disabled, I cannot duplicate the steps to illustrate the above.  

However performing the following seems to have provided a workaround for Access causes reconfigure of Office 2007 each time Access is started.  Workaround Solution below:

C: \Program Files>Common Files>microsoft shared>OFFICE12>Office Setup Controller>SETUP.exe change to SETUPold.exe

If later, you have the need to utilize the configure; change SETUPold.exe back to SETUP.exe  Do whatever you need to and then kill it again.

I tried the suggestion from  GiovanniPanzani's post above april 17, 2008 and it did not work for me.  So I guess that for the time being I am stuck with the workaround.  As far as I can see, this does eliminate the problem of executing Access causing Office Professional 2007 to configure.  I hope this is helpful.  I found the basis for this workaround at the following site, but for a slightly different problem.  You have to go to the absolute bottom of the very long page to see this.  

www.experts-exchange.com/.../Q_23257454.html

Now I feel like a real idiot.  If I had read and understood Alan's post above December 19, 2007, I would not have put all of my comments in to begin with.  Sorry , but I still hope that some of what I said is helpful.

After over 3 hours on the phone today with MS, the problem  of Office Professional 2007 configuring each time Access is started has been solved at least for me.  There was a problem, maybe corruption or whatever with my administrator permissions.  We finally created a new user  as administrator and reinstalled Office Professional 2007.  The problem went away.  I still cannot use Access under the old administrator due to the permissions, but can with the new administrator.  I am not sure that it is necessary to reinstall Office Professional 2007.  You might just try creating a new administrator user and seeing if that makes your problem go away.

Thanks, this did the trick. Just not for Access.

Please update if you figure out a fix for access. I tried editing and changing "Word" to

"Access" and "Options" to "Settings" still no luck.

Thanks again

Hello David.

Thank you for your helping to getting rid of the installer / configuration dialog box.

It has been useful for me very much.

There is also the same problem with Microsoft Office Visio that cannot be fixed with this trick.

This works only for Microsoft Office Word.

I think this is because of the Options key that is existed only for Word and not for Visio.

Would you like offering a solution for this?

Thanks.

HP laptop + Vista Home Premium + Office 2007 Enterprise : How in heaven's name does this function properly together? I have tried so many things from forums....if the apps works ok from within office12 directory, then it can't be ?THAT hard to sort out (can you tell David, why does M$ not make available a fix?) I also have desktop running XP Pro + OFF2007 Enterprise.....running smoothly.......Let me just mention i had MSWORKS on this laptop, then also installed OFF2000 - same repeated config issue started,  so that has just carried over into OFF2007....what does it say when the apps works fine, it is only the pop up boxes and timeconsuming which is irritating tremendously....COME ON M$,,,show us your expertise and fix this before JUNE2008 is out...Thanks.....David thanks for what seems like a singular effort to fix this problem....

For Visio 2003 2007 issues I do the following

open up visio from the commanp prompt like so

c:\program files\microsoft office\office12\visio /noreg

If you put "/noreg" in, it stops the program reregistering. There are more options at support.microsoft.com/.../265194

If it works you can then make a shortcut and put the noreg parameter in.

No tested on word/access etc but would assume its the same drill

To Run Access 2007 and Access 2003 is same Machine:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\SETUP.EXE TO

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\SETUP_OLD.EX

All time that you execute the Access 2007 it excludes the register:   HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Access\NoRepairNeeded

To correct this create a .bat file to add the key before executing Access 2003 again:

reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Access\NoRepairNeeded /f

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OFFICE11\MSACCESS.EXE"

Works fine to me :)

after nearly tearing my hair out over this as I use Access and Word this blog was a godsend

1. the registry key fix worked for Word

2. after reading what everyone had tried and done I decided  what the heck and did the following:

" alan said: rename setup.exe to .old in this folder:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller

and try again.

December 19, 2007 7:23 PM" ......

and this WORKED FOR ACCESS!!!!!!

so thank you to David and Adam :)

Many thanks for this one, after hours of searching and days of irritation this was the perfect fix.

THANKYOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

I had upgraded to Vista on a XP Laptop and it was too slow so i decided to reinstall xp. This took ages (as you would imagine) and had to reinstall office 2007. Everything installed fine and then it would do the cinfiguration process. The string stopped it all together, and changing the program name for word to excel etc. worked fine. Can you please tell the Microsoft Manager the he is very annoying not only to me but probably millions of people around the world by banning xp cas vista is just to SLOW!!!! Only do that if u think u can without losing your job:):):):):D:D:D:D. Now I have a perfect laptop at only 11 years of age, and i configured it all myself with no help from Dell or Microsoft

David,I would like to use your help. I'm using window XP Home Edition and Microsoft Office XP

Professional with Microsoft Frontpage 2000.

The Problem is:

Every time when I try to open EVERY Microsoft products,Internet Explorer and Help ,a popup message just like above appear,I try to cancel it then it come again! When I disobey it,it say something about PROPLUS.msi

Is there a solution beside of Buying the CD?

But when I cancel the popups many time,the microsoft products still can be used

It is just so annoying

Help!

Sorry for grammar mistake

Dear David , I run the key that you said and unfortunately my laptop keep running the install configuratuion every time it start up or when i launch an office 2007 enterprise application. Everything was working just fine untill I installed Office xp in addition with my office 2007 enterprise and it continues reinstalling even i had uninstalled Office XP

you are, a lifesaver.

Thanks so much for the help.

Btw, if I may donate my 2 cents, I had a problem of having to be able to choose which version (2003/2007) I would like to open my word files from using the "Open With" option - only one .exe file could be chosen. This problem was quickly fixed when I renamed 2003's .exe file to WinWord03 and voila! I had two options in the "Open With" section.

Cheers!

Thank you!!!

I'm have the same problem with Windows Installer trying to run while opening ANYTHING Microsoft.  The one difference is that it is ONLY doing this on a non-administrative account. I'm running Windows XP Pro, MS Office 2003 Pro.  What do I have to do to get this IRRITATING behavior to stop on the non-administrative accounts?

I had all sorts of problems as above. I did the reg addition as above but only Word worked. Everything else would try to reinstall.

I went into the properties of the setup.exe in the office setup controller folder  and changed them to run as an administrator and it seems the problem is sorted for outlook.

Final thing that worked so far

I went into the common files, microsoft shared, office 12, microsoft controller folder - right clicked and in permissions denied system full control (all boxes were checked). All work without the configuration screens now after renaming the setup.exe to another name. I don't know what effect it will have further on but I can open and save!

Hello everyone,

I have been struggling with a client that had Office 2003 installed and I installed Access 2007 for a database app they were getting written. Ever since whenever a message with html was downloaded in Outlook the install/configure box would come up for Access 2007. If you canceled the first time it appeared, it would not come up again for that Outlook session but would reappear if Outlook was closed and then opened again.

I tried all of the options and had Windows put the setup.exe back in when I renamed it.

I finally installed the Office 2007 compatibility pack and the Office File converters out of frustration. Imagine my surprise when Outlook behaved properly from then on. I am not sure which did it but I figure this wouldn't hurt to try for those who are still suffering through the Access install/configure box while downloading messages in Outlook.

The compatibility pack is here:

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx

The file converters are here:

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx

David,

I wrote you an email about a few issues that I have with my Office 2007, and which are described in this post.

I tried everything, and it didn't help, so I'm pretty desperate now...

I will appreciate, if you could reply to my email.

Thanks,

Vadim

Hi from Australia,

Thanks to David O and everyone adding info.

Making new shortcuts from the original .exe files solved the issue I was having.

Had a new notebook with Office 2007 60 day trial version installed but the Association that owned to computer needed to run Office 2003 which they owned. I tried to uninstall 2007 first but because it was OEM installed it did not completely uninstall. After installing 2003 each time I opened Outlook  an installer called "Microsoft Hybrid Office 2007 installer started up. Spent many hours scouring the internet and uninstalling/reinstalling but this site was the most useful and informative.

Again thanks again for taking the time to upload the helpful hints and info.

Michael

You the man.  Thanks a mill.   Stupidly easy to fix and causes so much frustration.  Thanks again

Thanks for saving me the extra grey hairs. I'm back in control:)

THANK YOU!  This has been driving me bonkers for weeks, tried to troubleshoot it, reinstall, etc. - finally did a Google search for the issue and it brought me to your blog.  You're my Monday Hero.

I had the Windows Installer problem in Visio 2007. Turns out it was caused by strange registry permissions set by Windows Installer during setup. It had created lots of new Viso-related keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes, but had set the permissions to user "msiserver" only. I ran some SetInACL commands and reset inheritance on everything. Works perfectly now.

Supposed to be SubInACL actually. Availible in the Windows resource kit.

I noticed because I could not open the Visio.Drawings key. Possibly just a fluke on my system, but check the registry permissions anyway if you have problems...

The fix above is great ... But it only seems to work for Word and -- despite the fact that the reg change was inserted in the Word branch -- Excel.  Access, however, continues to run the config/installer, even after placing an indentical Options key and DWord value under that branch in the reg!?!

It's really time for M$ to come up with a fix for Access. This issue comes up 2-4 times weekly on Experts-Exchange.com in the Access Zone.  There is absolutely NO excuse for the stupid annoyance ... none whatsoever.

mx

Thanks - that was a helpfull tip!  Good work.

Regards

Robert S

THANK U SO MUCH EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING 4!!!

I just used your "fix" for the config problem (using frontpage 2003) and office enterprise 2007 and worked like a charm.  THANKS!

Like many others (I think)   I believe office 2007 was a step in the wrong direction.  Just the other day I spent 10 minutes searching for a .doc that I KNEW i saved.  Duh.. .docx

ugh...

Corey Perez

livesaver, thanks

YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BoydR, you're my hero!

I've done that

David.  I tried your fix but it did not work for me.  My issue is similar.  It is not happening on Ms Word.  Mine is happening on Ms Outlook 2003.  I have Office 2007 (without Outlook 2007) and Office 2003 (Only Outlook 2003 is installed).  Any ideas?  Thank you in advance.

You are awesome !! I had to run the cleaner to get rid of trial version of home and student and then did your step and it works!!

I love you !

David,

Worked perfectly.  

Many thanks!

Jeff

Thanks for the fix. Also thanks for explaining why access rereg's after 2003 run. 2007 only does it not 2003. Thanks again.

I came across the blog when searching for a solution to my problem with the installer running in Office 2007.  I am using Office 2007 Basic (OEM), as I only use Word, Excel and Outlook.  All application run fine, except for when I try to access the help files or F1.  I noticed that one of the reader posed the same problem I am having:

Julian wrote re: How to get rid of the installer / configuration dialog when running Office 2007 and Office 2003 on the same system - for Vista and other versions of Windows

on Sat, Aug 4 2007 12:51 PM

Okay, my problem is similar, but not exactly the same.  Whenever I try to access "help" from within any application in ffice 2007 (on Vista), the configuration starts running.

Any ideas?

I am using Vista x64.  The only thing that I can remember that might be cause this problem is downloading a security patch pushed out by Windows Update, or perhaps trying to install the  Outlook Contact manager, which I found out, after installing, was not applicable to my Office package, so I ended up un-installing that component.

Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is the German Language pack that I installed soon after it was available, but that was quite some time ago.

Do you have any suggestions?

Good Lord! It worked perfectly. Thanks a lot!!

thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a lot now it will help me to teach both versions togehter

thanxxxxxxxxxx

thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I have Office 2003 and 2007 both installed. Any idea how to force Word 2003 to open *.doc files by default and have Word 2007 open *.dotx files by default from within Windows Explorer.  At the moment Word 2003 is opening all file types.

I have tried setting the default programme for *.dotx to Word 2007 but it keeps reverting.

I can't get this to work on vista 64-bit.  Visio 2003 installer opens on every startup.  Did I miss something?

Hello.  I have vista 64-bit.  I have office 2007 student edition.  I installed visio 2003 and I keep getting the installer.  I followed this thread from the start, and tried everything (I think).  Any suggestions?

After weeks of trying (months, really), I finally found the solution for Outlook.  I have Vista Ultimate, and some of the fixes above worked for Word and PowerPoint, but I still got the Configuration screen whenever I started Outlook, and got the whole "Please wait while..." thing when a new email would come.

I thought I had truly tried everything, and then found the site below, which cured Outlook.  It involves permissions and SubInAcl, but also explains how to USE SubInAcl, which is unusual:

ikbentomas.nl/officefix.html

I hope this works for at least someone out there who was in the position I was.

And thanks to David for hosting this pagefull of helpful info!

I had the loop problem with Outlook 2007 on an Acer Laptop.  None of then suggested solutions here worked for me.  But I found the site below that advised to uninstall some proprietary software, specifically Acer eDataSecurity Management from HiTRUST.

It worked!!!

So i can't help but wonder if others who have this problem don't have some similar software on their machines that are getting in the way of Office running right.

Good luck

followtheheard.blogspot.com/.../acer-laptop-and-microsoft-outlook-2007.html

Thank god to you all!  This was an extremely frustraing issue.  The fix that finally worked for me was Samanem's above.  Woohoo!

Hello Mr.David,

I have office home and student 2007, with windows xp home. The fix you gave for the reconfigure work for the word, powerpoint and onenote, but it did not work for excel. When I open excel the configuration restarts.

Hi David,

I used your start/run registry command <reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1> and it worked like a charm!  Thanks a million.

I had a DRAM chip fail, which caused some of the set up protocol to be written so that when I replaced the failed chip the computer still wouldn't boot because there was "an error in setup...contact the System Administrator."  Eventually the only way around the problem was to reinstall the Operating System!!!!  I now understand why people only do that as a last resort.  Your bit of wisdom was a very welcome, easy fix.  Thanks again,  Bobbie

Thank a lot for the tip. I have to open documents everyday and it was getting to be quite annoying. I installed my Office 2007 on my external hard drive and thought that might be the problem, but it wasn't, thanks again!

Thankyou David,  I stumbled across this Blogsite after my M$ Word 07 developed this nasty habit on WinXP home.  Itried the cmd line method but it still occured.  i then went into the registry and manually entered the NoReReg D_Word as it wasn't there (?).  Next start up the config. screen made another appearance which I closed,  it died screaming (for shame !)by telling me there had been an error and to repair Office 07 (NO!). Word now ruuning perfectly again.  Once more Thanks.

David,

I"m having the same problem as most with Access 2003 and 2007 residing on a Windows VIsta Ultimate machine.  I've read through your posts, and it seems that you are saying for the software to co-exist, it will reconfigure every time.  Is this correct or was there a different fix.

Thanks,

Allison

Thanks very much for the tip.  Works like a charm!!!

Thanks, worked.

ACCESS 2003/2007 Fix:

I just got off the phone with Microsoft Access Support.  My condition with Access 2007 was that everytime I opened Access 2007, it would go through the full configuration.  This would happen even if I opened Access 2007 back to back.

We found the following registry keys and by deleting them, the cycling stopped:following registry key.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Access.Application]

This key will cause the config screen to constantly cycle everytime you open Access 2007.  By deleting the key and everything under it, it fixes the cycling problem and Access 2007 opens right away.

Allison

Samanem, it worked!!! My Outlook 2007 now opens in a flash. Thank you.

David,

Is there a way to undo the following once added. I have Office 2003 and excel and word 2007.

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

What is the undo script for the above ?

For some reasons my data analysis addins are not getting installed on Excel 2007.  

Thanks

Amit

David,

Sincere thanks:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1 fixed Word.  I tried reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1 but that did not fix Excel.  Any thoughts?

Amazing!  Thank you very much this worked like a charm. I ran it once and my problem was immediately solved. I can't believe what a quick fix this was. I was expecting many hours of research but fortunately found your lind. Thank you again!

Thank you very much, opened the run line, copy and paste your line and walla, it starts up fine everytime, no more config error! tHANKS A MILLION!

Amazing!  I have just read this string that started in July 2007.  I only purchased the upgrade last week.  Unbelievable that Microsoft has not addressed these issues in the past 19 months.

My problems were Word and Excel configuring each startup.

Word now works fine with:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

However (assuming I replace Word and WORD with excel), this did not work with Excel.

I then did what Alan suggested with:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller

Result?  Opened an existing file ....  Yeehaa it worked

Opened a new file .... Back to square one and the setup file reset.  So I renamed again and this time opened a new file, configure process, closed, open a new file again and still have original problems.

Also when I open Excel dialog box appears with:

stdole32.tlb

This problem has been mentioned and prompted for an answer several times above, but no solution has been forthcoming.  Can anyone help me with Excel and stdole32.tlb.

I am running Home Office 2007 after upgrading XP Professional on Vista.

Thanks to all for the Word fix.  Much appreciated!

My comment above on Excel.  I have overcome the problem by changing the setup.  Restarting computer, copying shortcut to deskto and I can now go straight to Excel as new (via shortcut) and opening an existing.  Still have stdole32.tlb problem though.