Question

Every time Word 2003 opens AND closes, it says "Preparing to Install"

Asked by: fixnix

Hi,  I've recently run in to a slew of problems w/ a client's Office 2003 Pro installation.  Everything used to work fine, but now I've had a series of odd problems.  The workstation is running XP Pro, and was initially set up using a program called MoveMe from the previous computer running WinME (great app for upgrading from ME to XP Pro since there is no MS upgrade path to do that...plus many of the original software installation disks have gone missing).  Office 2000 Small Business was installed on the old machine, and was still functional (yet not used) on the new machine.  Everything was working nicely for about a year.

Last week, the first problem occurred when he opened an .rtf document sent as an email attachment (from a known person, and the document was legit.  Kaspersky AV is installed checking for updates using extended definitions every hour and realtime protection is enabled including email attachment scanning).  When he tried to open the attachment, his computer prompted to insert the O2K Small Bus disc.  I noticed many extensions that were associated w/ word 2000 instead of word 2k3.  I do not know how long that has been the case.  I changed all associations to word 2000 to now point to word 2003.  

I tried to uninstall O2K but it asks for the CD.  I have 2 O2K Small Business cd's, however, both are SR-1, and this particular machine had O2K Small Business original (SR-0) and the installer refuses to accept it because it is not the correct version.  For the same reason, my O2K Professional cd's are obviously also refused.  I've done both a repair and later a reinstall of Office 2003.

Currently, If Word 2003 is opened (either existing or new document), It asks for the Office 2000 cd!  I've deleted every instance of Normal.dot (2k and 2k3 locations).  I've also uninstalled Adobe 4.0 (left over form the old system) and reinstalled Adobe Standard 6.0 (6.0 had already been installed and was working properly for a year...but I hoping this was an Adobe toolbar issue somehow).  I need to click cancel about 4 or 5 times before the O2k cd prompt goes away, then the document opens fine.  As long as only the documents are closed and not Word itself, it can run and happilly open stuff all day long.  Once the user finally closes Word, it pops up another "Preparing to install" dialogue, does not prompt for a cd, and closes.  The next time Word is opened, the same thing happens..."Preparing to Install" then "Insert O2k small bus cd" <cancel several times> then it's fine....until closed.

The user is a local admin.  Several reboots have been done.

Since I could not uninstall O2k w/o the cd, I went registry fishing and removed (well, renamed) every key I could find relating to O2k in both HKLM\Software and HKCU\Software\Classes and HKCU\Software\Microsoft\blah blah blah.  More reboots....no changes.

I've seen an MS Office cleanup util to scrub the registry of prior versions, but one util said it was not tested on XP and another said it should only be used *after* performing an uninstall of the old version (which I cannot do).

Wiping out this machine and starting over is not an option.  He's got some software that was an absolute nightmare to get swapped over from the original machine, and other software with missing install discs.

I'm thinking my next step should be to uninstall O2k3 and Adobe standard, delete/rename any and all Office references I can find in the registry and filesystem, then reinstall O2k3 then Adobe...but his computer was not purchased at the same time as the others...and I only found O2k3 cd's (and more importantly....cd KEYS) for the other workstations.  I know his version is a legit, licensed copy, I just don't know where *his* cd key is.  I believe a call to MS could resolve that issue...but I'd rather extract his current key (or key hash...I don't believe the key itself is stored anywhere on the system, but unsure if copying the hash would suffice) from the surrent install if possible.

Ideas?

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Asked On
2005-09-07 at 07:59:51ID21553341
Tags

word

,

install

,

preparing

,

2003

,

every

Topic

Microsoft Word

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: fixnixPosted on 2005-09-07 at 18:00:54ID: 14841278

Update:  After changing approximately 400 registry entries (replaced all references to .....\Microsoft Office\Office\* to ....\Microsoft Office\Office11\*, renamed all program references (incl CLSID's) to older office versions to *.old, and changing several "open With" commands and related entries, and changing "current version" keys in all instances of "Extensions" keys related to Office), and comparing a properly working system's registry and deleting a few more keys....it seems to be working again.  Wont have time to test fully until tomorrow.

I'm positive that it wasn't necessary to make *all* the changes I made...but I got tired of making a handful of changes at a time then retesting to no avail.

Before I ask for a points refund...I'd like to award points to anyone with a decent theory on what could have broken this system in the first place.

 

by: JOrzechPosted on 2005-09-07 at 18:30:37ID: 14841399

http://www.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;828956

Are all Windows and Office updates current?  May be an issue with the converters installed unless you've opened rtfs before without a problem.

Try searching for all instances of normal.dot on the hard drive and either rename or delete them.

Try deleting the Word data registry key.

 

by: fixnixPosted on 2005-09-07 at 18:37:33ID: 14841430

2k3 is current with the exception of a french grammar update and one other foreign language update which aren't needed here.  I had deleted all instances of Normal.dot many times while troubleshooting this problem.  It seemed to have no effect.

Rtf's used to open fine...and this problem was with all word files, it just started with an .rtf (although I don't think the .rtf had anything to do with the problem).

I'm not sure which registry key you mean by "the Word data" registry key.

 

by: JOrzechPosted on 2005-09-07 at 18:41:26ID: 14841446

Instructions can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822005

I assume you've run spyware, adware, virus scans?

Does it occur when you login as a different user?

Also, did you review the link above?
"Preparing to install" message when you start Word
If you have multiple versions of Word installed on your computer, when you start Office Word 2003, the Windows Installer may run and display a message that states that it is preparing to install before actually starting Word.

For instructions about how to install multiple versions as a dual boot, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;828957 (http://www.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;828957)

 

by: fixnixPosted on 2005-09-07 at 18:50:53ID: 14841483

Kasperski antivirus, extended definitions updated every hour, Adaware SE w/ new defs downloaded prior to scanning (and there were around 10 registry entries to be cleaned in addition to 20 or so tracking cookies), Spybot Search and Destroy v1.4 (also current defs...and the initial scan terminated immediately.  Further investigation showed a hosts file that had many popular update/antivirus/antispyware sites pointed to loopback addresses.  Once fixing the hosts file, the scan ran fine and turned up a couple more malware problems.  Windows and Office updates were not affected since they're gotten from WSUS on the LAN).

Thanks for the link you gave....that would have come in exceptionally handy about 7 hours ago lol.  Good to know I guessed right about what *most* of the keys were that I was mucking around with ;).   I did wind up hitting the Data keys while I was on my registry rampage. (I'm using the plural "keys" because of the multiple office versions that had been installed).

 

by: fixnixPosted on 2005-09-07 at 18:56:12ID: 14841515

I didn't try to replicate the problem as a different user.  Would have been a good step...guess I brain-farted on that one.

The prior like you pasted about the Word preparing to install didn't have any useful information since it is not a dual boot machine, nor do we even *want* both versions of office installed.  If I could, I would love to uninstall Office 2000 but without the correct cd version there seems to be no method to do it other than manually digging in the registry and praying.

 

by: fixnixPosted on 2005-09-16 at 07:31:36ID: 14898318

Had to make some additional registry changes that I missed and keep an eyeball on syslog to fix a few other problems, but it seems to be working.  Points awarded for the link that would have helped me if I had it earlier ;)

 

by: JOrzechPosted on 2005-09-17 at 07:00:55ID: 14903938

Thanks very much - I'm glad it working in any event.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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