PRB: Starting Visual Studio Product Launches Office Installer (284227)

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you insert a different Office 2000 CD than the one originally used to install Office 2000, or the original Office 2000 CD was an MSDN version. This is because the Installer looks for a CD with the same ID in the boot sector as the disc used to install the product originally.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

On Windows 2000 Terminal Services:

Run the Regedit.exe utility to add the following data to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common registry key.
Name Data = OSAShortcut Reg_Word 1
UserData = Reg_Word 1
-or-
Use the original Office CD to install the required files or uninstall and reinstall Office from the CD you have at this time.

NOTE: You may also have to perform the resolution for preexisting installations, described later in this section, as well.

On new installations:

Install the Visual Studio product as usual but when you are finished, first start an Office application, such as Microsoft Word. Once this application has started, you can successfully start any of the Visual Studio products.

On preexisting installations:

It may be necessary to log on as another user with full rights, rename the affected user's profile (in Windows 2000 it is under \Documents and Settings\<user name>), and then log back in as that old user. This will create a new profile and then you can copy the old profile's "My Documents" and "Favorites" to the new user. Next, follow the steps outlined in the "On new installations."

MORE INFORMATION

The cause of the Windows Installer launching is a conflict between the newer proactive/repairing Windows installer and the older Acmsetup used in Visual Studio. The windows installer is performing as expected and repairing what it views as a need for repair. For more information on Windows Installer see the following Microsoft Web page:

http://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/server/help/default.asp?url=/windows2000/en/server/help/sag_WinInstall_default_topnode.htm?id=3631