Office XP on WinXP/Home constantly "Preparing to install..."

Hello AndrewJayPollack,

happened to off2K also so you can try

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q265194

HAGD:O)Bruintje

or
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q290740

Thanks for the link.  I did the setups as they request, but still happening. It MAY be quicker now, its hard to tell with caching.  I'll keep and eye on it next time I boot this pig.

The first option, the language choice left the office 10 config with zeros, not a value in the registry choices reflected in that document.  Setting them manually to 409 (as the office 9 setup was configured) did not help.

I wonder if it has one or two more items like it in the new office.

You running more than one version? Does it ALWAYS occur or only after you've run the prior versions? Does it do it when you run ALL apps or just Word and Access?

I have only office xp, but have ms publisher which is connected (sort of) to an older version I think.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled office xp to make sure its the most recent.  didn't help.

Here's what I'd do if it were me, so no yellin!

Start-Run, Regedit

hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office

Right-click the office folder and delete it.

The first time you run the apps, they will definitely give you the message 'cause they need to reregister themselves. After that, you shouldn't get the message anymore. If you do, then I'm suspect you don't have rights to your registry or it's not being saved somehow.

will do it now.  nothing to loose, I can always pop the handy disk back in.

you won't believe this.  Did it, it behaved as you predicted, I even needed to re-key the product key.  Then same problem.  Though its noticeably shorter than it used to be.

something on the path maybe?

PATH=C:\Oracle8i\Ora81\bin;C:\Program Files\Oracle\jre\1.1.7\bin;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Symantec\pcAnywhere\;C
:\Oracle8i\Ora81\orb\bin;C:\Program Files\SUperior SU;C:\PROGRA~1\LOTUSE~1\cb\bi
n

Shouldn't have anything to do with it. Where did you INSTALL it? The default loca?

Yep.  BTW:  I've upped the points on this question.  ;-)  And its a brand new XP/Home machine.  I'm betting its a conflict with some other microsoft product that I've installed, but damn if I can figure out which.  Maybe VB.NET?

Nope. Shouldn't be.
No upping the points...we're fine here. :)
LOL, update the points AFTER we get it resolved!
Not only that, but if someone else drops in and helps, you might want to give them points to...
Stick to your points till it's resolved. That's my method.

So...ok.

What have we got here?
XP Home. Were any other versions of Office EVER on it?
Do you have more than one user, or are you the default (admin) user? I mean...feasibly (ok, I'm grasping at straws)...we could be fixing all the reg stuff on one user and running the exe of the other user? Have you double-checked for multiple executables, like TWO excel.exe files? Maybe we're fixing an install, while the other fouled one is the one we're running over and over and nothing is changing?

Ok. I'm still thinking over heah!

never installed any other office, but, the registry shows entries for office9 and office8, so some software on the machine is "office related" and installs with reg keys in those directories.

Yes. Now I get to spank you, right?

I told ya...

Delete the OFFICE folder in the registry.
And that should have removed 10, 9, 8, etc.
Did you just remove 10?

Deleted them all when I did it, and only 10 was put back when I launched word.  (I'm not that stupid!  Close, but not quite.  :-)

Did you delete the office folder in HKEY LOCAL MACHINE as well as HKEY CURRENT USER?

if not, give that a shot.

Thanks, Amerist. I couldn't remember the exact place...

Hkey_current_user\software\microsoft...

yes.  I did both at that time.

I've gotta step out, Andrew, 'cause I don't know where to go from here. Good luck!!

Thanks for the effort, Dream.

reinstall office and customize it instead of choosing "typical".  Choose the option to "Run from my computer" on everything you want. - do not choose to install on first run or anything like that.

That should fix your problem.

Actually (just in case someone like me stumbles across this) I performed the following steps and it fixed the problem:

Run setup and choose add or remove installed components.

For Excel, Outlook, and Word:  Change them to say "Installed on first use" and say ok.

When that's done, run each of those programs and let them be installed.

Now, go back to setup and choose add or remove installed components.  You'll notice that many items under Word, Excel, and Outlook still show 'install on first use'.  Change everything back to "Run from my computer" and say ok.  That will install all components under each program.

After that, you should never see that dialog box again.

This also seems to not lose any of your settings you already have.

since we get still notifs

-what about uninstalling office xp
-uninstall publisher
-install publisher
-install office xp

that should be the correct order since office xp will be the last one installed correctly

AndrewJayPollack,
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Paulo
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