Opening Word & Excel (MS Office 2000 Premium SP3)

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When I open Outlook, Access, FrontPage, PowerPoint & Publisher all is normal. When I open Word & Excel I have to have the CD installation disk available. A box is displayed with the title `Windows Installer’ & the message `Preparing to install . .’

This box is replaced by another titled `MS Office 2000 SR-1 Premium’ with the message `Please wait while Windows configures MS Office 2000 SR-1 Premium’. A progress bar is shown together with a message `Gathering information’. When the progress bar has completed Word opens apparently normally. With Excel the process is the same.

I had a problem with two installations of MS Office, each on different drives, the second being an error overlooked while reinstalling Office following a reinstall of Windows XP Home.

I have been through the Registry to change all references to the wrong install drive to the correct drive with the aid of a registry editor. I have run Detect & Repair from Word & Excel & I have also reinstalled Office from the installation disks 1 & 2. Nevertheless the problem persists. I have used a registry utility to search for errors & unwanted entries with no better result.

Can anyone suggest what else I can do? If I uninstall Office whatever is causing the problem may well be left to cause it again after a further reinstall.

Malcolm Walker

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To quote from Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 244170, “This problem occurs when the version of Word that you are using changes the “current version” key for Word in the Windows Registry. Later versions of Word “re-register” themselves, so that when a document is opened outside of Word, the operating system knows which application the file belongs to.
When Word 2000 is started, it detects that the “current version” setting is not set to Word 2000, and the Setup program runs to reset the registry settings.
This functionality is by design, and there is no workaround to prevent this from occurring.”

Having a second version of Office installed on the computer will trigger this behaviour.

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John, Thank you for your reply & for kindly pointing me to the MSKB. I have read the article you have referred to & I have to say that I find the statement there-in, that there is no work-a-round, somewhat disappointing.

Each I every time I open a document the `identification’ process is repeated. Something of a bore but the price I am paying for my carelessness. I had removed the second installation, that was from the same installation disks as the first, & it was after I did so that the problem occurred. So I am left wondering what is different about the versions installed?

Nevertheless thank you again for interest & response. I am very grateful for your assistance.

Malcolm

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John, Thank you for your reply & for kindly pointing me to the MSKB. I have read the article you have referred to & I have to say that I find the statement there-in, that there is no work-a-round, somewhat disappointing.

Each I every time I open a document the `identification’ process is repeated. Something of a bore but the price I am paying for my carelessness. I had removed the second installation, that was from the same installation disks as the first, & it was after I did so that the problem occurred. So I am left wondering what is different about the versions installed?

Nevertheless thank you again for interest & response. I am very grateful for your assistance.

Malcolm

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As part of an Office installation, a log is written of all the install details. It is to this log that Office refers – and not just to the Registry. Thus editing the Registry is only a partial solution. I have heard that the log is not editable by hand, but have never had cause to try and alter it.

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 244170 mentioned by Rebel does apply in some, but not all, circumstances. For the record, my principal OS contains 4 full installations of Office. The message that you mention does not arise when I open any Office application.

HTH

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What you tell me seems to point to uninstalling & reinstalling Office. That was something I wanted to avoid! Perhaps for no other reason than cussedness at my earlier error.

As in my other response I have to also wonder why the other Office applications are unaffected & this problem only affects Word & Excel?

Thank you for your interest & assistance. I am very grateful.

Malcolm

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I regret I am unable to find the (possibly more than one) post which I was remembering. Unfortunately, the WMVP who made it is on the Lounge only very infrequently at present.

You could try looking at the Log Files in C:Documents and Settings[username]Local SettingsTemp to see whether altering any of them might help. With the possible exception of Powerpoint, I am not surprised that your other Office applications are not affected. A number of the Office apps are built quite differently “under the hood”.

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The log files were very interesting & some of them large for a TXT file being up to 225Kb. I found some that referred to the erroneous reinstall & put them in a new folder. There was no change in the problem. I then put all the files referring to Office installations into that new folder & again nothing changed.

It does seem that a uninstall & reinstall may be the only solution.

Malcolm

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Malcolm,
For what it’s worth, there are several articles in the MSKB regarding cleaning up after an uninstall. In the KB, select Office 2000 and search on the keywords “completely remove”. The suggestions here may sokve the problem, although an uninstall and reinstall is required.

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Malcolm,
For what it’s worth, there are several articles in the MSKB regarding cleaning up after an uninstall. In the KB, select Office 2000 and search on the keywords “completely remove”. The suggestions here may sokve the problem, although an uninstall and reinstall is required.

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The log files were very interesting & some of them large for a TXT file being up to 225Kb. I found some that referred to the erroneous reinstall & put them in a new folder. There was no change in the problem. I then put all the files referring to Office installations into that new folder & again nothing changed.

It does seem that a uninstall & reinstall may be the only solution.

Malcolm

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I regret I am unable to find the (possibly more than one) post which I was remembering. Unfortunately, the WMVP who made it is on the Lounge only very infrequently at present.

You could try looking at the Log Files in C:Documents and Settings[username]Local SettingsTemp to see whether altering any of them might help. With the possible exception of Powerpoint, I am not surprised that your other Office applications are not affected. A number of the Office apps are built quite differently “under the hood”.

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There are a number of suggestions in the thread following post 83329, especially in post 170155.

StuartR

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Stuart,

Thank you. The first MSKB article (265194) referred to by Phil Rabichow looks promising.

Malcolm

My rose-tinted optimsm has come to nought with a minus sign. No improvement & now FrontPage is broke & I am told to reinstall it!!

At this point I am retiring to my golf course where I intend to go round with as many shots as is possible to return refreshed to tackle this problem once & for all.

Many thanks for your interest & assistance; it is very much appreciated.

Malcolm

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Stuart,

Thank you. The first MSKB article (265194) referred to by Phil Rabichow looks promising.

Malcolm

My rose-tinted optimsm has come to nought with a minus sign. No improvement & now FrontPage is broke & I am told to reinstall it!!

At this point I am retiring to my golf course where I intend to go round with as many shots as is possible to return refreshed to tackle this problem once & for all.

Many thanks for your interest & assistance; it is very much appreciated.

Malcolm

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There are a number of suggestions in the thread following post 83329, especially in post 170155.

StuartR

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What you tell me seems to point to uninstalling & reinstalling Office. That was something I wanted to avoid! Perhaps for no other reason than cussedness at my earlier error.

As in my other response I have to also wonder why the other Office applications are unaffected & this problem only affects Word & Excel?

Thank you for your interest & assistance. I am very grateful.

Malcolm

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Hi unkamumka:
I haven’t installed more than one version at a time, so I haven’t personally experienced the issue. However, I’m curious in what circumstances the installer issue that was mentioned arises & in what circumstances it doesn’t. How do you avoid the problem?

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The three golden rules for a smooth multi-Office installation appear to be:

• don’t change your mind “halfway through”,
• always work in historical order, and
• if installing more than one version, use a different set of folders for each version[/list]. It appears that the issue in this thread is the breaking of the first rule – as there was an attempt to change the install location. With applications other than Office, it is often possible to change the install location. These problems with Office may arise in part from attempts to code Office installations against cloning/piracy – before Product Activation was (re)introduced.

  FWIW Office is always one of my first installs when dealing with a new OS – sometimes even before any HotFixes/Service Packs. It can turn out to be simpler to restart that OS installation. Permanently struggling with a buggy Office installation can be a daily .

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I would add another golden rule …. always copy the CDs for your applications to your hard drive or server and run the install from there.

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I would add another golden rule …. always copy the CDs for your applications to your hard drive or server and run the install from there.

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Thanks for the info. I will keep this post in mind when someone asks about installing more than one version of Office.

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Thanks for the info. I will keep this post in mind when someone asks about installing more than one version of Office.

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The three golden rules for a smooth multi-Office installation appear to be:

• don’t change your mind “halfway through”,
• always work in historical order, and
• if installing more than one version, use a different set of folders for each version[/list]. It appears that the issue in this thread is the breaking of the first rule – as there was an attempt to change the install location. With applications other than Office, it is often possible to change the install location. These problems with Office may arise in part from attempts to code Office installations against cloning/piracy – before Product Activation was (re)introduced.

  FWIW Office is always one of my first installs when dealing with a new OS – sometimes even before any HotFixes/Service Packs. It can turn out to be simpler to restart that OS installation. Permanently struggling with a buggy Office installation can be a daily .

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Hi unkamumka:
I haven’t installed more than one version at a time, so I haven’t personally experienced the issue. However, I’m curious in what circumstances the installer issue that was mentioned arises & in what circumstances it doesn’t. How do you avoid the problem?

Reply | Quote

As part of an Office installation, a log is written of all the install details. It is to this log that Office refers – and not just to the Registry. Thus editing the Registry is only a partial solution. I have heard that the log is not editable by hand, but have never had cause to try and alter it.

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 244170 mentioned by Rebel does apply in some, but not all, circumstances. For the record, my principal OS contains 4 full installations of Office. The message that you mention does not arise when I open any Office application.

HTH

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