DCOM error

[PegasusTV12]

This has become an annoyance that i'd like to get rid of but have been
unable to do so. Anytime someone logs into the computer, Microsoft
powerpoint tries to run/install. At some point, powerpoint was on the
system but was supposed to have been removed however, it still shows up in
the list of programs on the add/remove list. How can i disable this thing
so it will stop trying to reinstall? (The disks for the MS office set are
no longer available to us and we are currently using MS office pro
anyway.) The error that i found in the system was as follows:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: DCOM
Event Category: None
Event ID: 10000

Description:
Unable to start a DCOM Server: {91493441-5A91-11CF-8700-00AA0060263B}. The
error:
"The system cannot find the file specified. "
Happened while starting this command:
C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office\POWERPNT.EXE /AUTOMATION -Embedding

 

[George Hester]

Powerpoint once installed always starts at boot. It is not called in an obvious way but a machine will show it start and stop if the task manager is seen immediately after you arrive at the desktop. The way to uninstall an office product correctly (usually) is to run the Setup again but in Add\Remove items you'll choose Remove and then remove the Powerpoint application there by de-selecting the entries for it. What I would do is reinstall Powerpoint from an available source then reboot then remove it in the way I just explained. Reboot and the problem should be gone.

 

[PegasusTV12]

unfortunately, i no longer have the disk that power point was on. (Got
scratched and became unusable.) That is the reason why we are using the MS
office small business suite instead of the premium version, whichis where
the powerpoint came from. Could i possibly use regedit to disable the boot
on start or am i just going to have to deal with the annoyance for all
time?

 

[George Hester]

All I can suggest is removing the call to ctfmon.exe in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. But this has to be done correctly. There is an article at Microsoft how to stop ctfmon.exe from being called at boot. I suspect that is where the Office Applications are called at boot.

There is a Windows Installer Cleanup utility at Microsoft but I do not think that gives you the option of uninstalling specific applications in the Office Suite. Here's another idea. Uninstall the Office you use now. Cleanup with the utility I mentioned above:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=290301

Then re-install your version of Office. Remember reboot after every major change to the system and make sure you are at either MDAC 2.6 or 2.7 latest Service Packs respectively.

http://www.microsoft.com/data