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rutlandictFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Microsoft office fails to open, error; side by side configuration is incorrect.

Unable to open any office programs. I get the following error; The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more details.

Header for the error changes depending on which office program you are attempting to open.
i.e for word:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\WINWORD.EXE

Also in addition windows live mail is also failing to open with the same side by side error message.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance
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Phiwi Moyo
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what is the error on the event log?
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ASKER

To Santasi24,

The event log for word is as follows:
Activation context generation failed for "C:\Windows\Installer\{67E03279-F703-408F-B4BF-46B5FC8D70CD}\WksWP.exe". Dependent Assembly sadctls, processor Architecture ="x86",type="win32",version="1.0.1801.0" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

The event log for windows live mail looks like this:
Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Mesh\WLSync.exe".
Dependent Assembly Microsoft. VC90.CRT, processor Architecture ="x86", publicKey Token ="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b", type="win32", version ="9.0.30729.1" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

Thanks
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Phiwi Moyo
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If the problem appears recently, you need to use a Windows Vista Recovery Disk or use your Windows Vista Setup DVD to start your PC and launch system restore to go back to a restore point before the WIndows Update.

URL: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

When a problem appears in Vista and Windows 7 and there are no clues from google, it seems to me the last resort is to use system restore as Vista is much better in system restore than the system restore in XP. System Restore in Vista is just like a time machine to go back to the exact state when the problem does not exist. But the drawback is that it consumes a lot of hard disk apace and it will restore the applications that you have removed and old version of document on desktop,

So, before your use System Restore, make sure all user data has been properly backup as it is just too powerful if Vista thinks that the path you stored your data is part of the system folders.

In a nutshell, System Restore can reduce the time of troubleshooting (except the problem is caused by hardware failure) but it must be used with due care.
Besides, what is the anti-virus / third-party firewall product inslalled in your computer?
To Jackieman,

They are using Norton Internet Security version 16.8.0.41

Thanks
1. Follow the advice in the link to remove Norton Internet Security

http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_view.jsp?wv_type=public_web&selected_nav=&pvid=&docurl=20080828154508EN

2. Restart Computer and check whether you can start Word 2010.

3. If still no go, run sfc /scannow in elevated command prompt. Details are in the link below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
To jackieman,

I've had lots of problems with the system restore. I tried a number of different restore points but all seem to fail. The error is as follows:
"System restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.
Details:
An unspecified error occurred during the System Restore.

Thanks.
Have you tried my comment #35382787?
The .net framework service packs had no affect to the problem.

The resolve was to re-install the Microsoft visual c++ 2008 redistributable package + SP1 from the links you provided.
Required the end user to re-enter his licence key for it to complete.
Delays to experts comments due to waiting on the end user providing me with the licence key. He bough it on the microsoft website and had to call up to retrieve in the end.

Thanks to all the Experts comments. Sorry i didn't get to try them all but this one worked perfectly.