Detect and Repair in Office XP for Windows XP

[Guest]

So...I was told to post this here after posting it in the Office thread. I'll
include the conversation so far:

ME:
Okay, so I have a good version of Office 2003 Basic. ie, I bought it
legitimately and everything. I have the product key. Please, please tell me
why when I try to run detect and repair it tells me "HKEY" something or other
is missing and doesn't prompt me for my product key. Tell me why, when I
insert my Office disc, I can't reinstall Office or do detect and repair from
there.

I don't think I have been able to use Update either. I suspect registry
cleanup software, but I don't know how to fix it.

Helpful Person:
Indeed, HKEY is a component or name (or something!) in the Windows registry.
If I were you, I'd head on over to the Windows newsgroup and see how you can
fix that, but I'd also get them the EXACT error message so they can help you
with intelligence. Once you fix your registry (and I don't think
"cleanup" software is necessarily "fixing" software), then you should
probably be able to run detect and repair.

ME:
Thank you! Where exactly do I access this newsgroup? Is it similar to this
format?
The error message, by the way, is:
Error 1402: Setup cannot open the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Optional
Components\MSFS. Verify that you have sufficient permissions to access the
registry or contact your computer manufacturer's product support for
assistance.

Does this mean I should be calling Dell? Furthermore, I know registry
cleanup software doesn't fix the problem but may be what has (possibly)
deleted this registry key, thus I don't know how to get it back.

Helpful Person: (Anne Troy, just to give credit )
Dell likely won't help you a bit. This IS a permissions issue. Are you
logged in as the administrator on this PC? If not, try to do so. And then
give yourself rights to the registry. A lot of this information should be
under Start-->Help in Windows.

There is no "deleted" registry key, I don't think. It's the fact that you
don't have permissions. Here's an article that may help you:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302853
(Always search Google for errors because, inevitably, someone has
experienced before what you're experiencing now.)

ME:
Okay, I'm logged on as the Computer Administrator, only not the default
account but the one with my name on it. So I should theoretically have
permission. Troublesomely, the article you directed me to only applies to
Windows ME or 98 or 2000; I'm running XP. I'll google it, but if there's
something else I should try let me know.

So then I was referred here. For the record, I did google it and can only
find stuff on the problem if you're using Office XP on a 98 or ME system, and
I'm using XP as I said.

 

[Galen]

In JillPole had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

So...I was told to post this here after posting it in the Office
thread. I'll include the conversation so far:

ME:
Okay, so I have a good version of Office 2003 Basic. ie, I bought it
legitimately and everything. I have the product key. Please, please
tell me why when I try to run detect and repair it tells me "HKEY"
something or other is missing and doesn't prompt me for my product
key. Tell me why, when I insert my Office disc, I can't reinstall
Office or do detect and repair from there.

I don't think I have been able to use Update either. I suspect
registry cleanup software, but I don't know how to fix it.

Helpful Person:
Indeed, HKEY is a component or name (or something!) in the Windows
registry. If I were you, I'd head on over to the Windows newsgroup
and see how you can fix that, but I'd also get them the EXACT error
message so they can help you with intelligence. Once you fix your
registry (and I don't think "cleanup" software is necessarily
"fixing" software), then you should probably be able to run detect
and repair.

ME:
Thank you! Where exactly do I access this newsgroup? Is it similar to
this format?
The error message, by the way, is:
Error 1402: Setup cannot open the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Optional
Components\MSFS. Verify that you have sufficient permissions to
access the registry or contact your computer manufacturer's product
support for assistance.

Does this mean I should be calling Dell? Furthermore, I know registry
cleanup software doesn't fix the problem but may be what has
(possibly) deleted this registry key, thus I don't know how to get it
back.

Helpful Person: (Anne Troy, just to give credit )
Dell likely won't help you a bit. This IS a permissions issue. Are you
logged in as the administrator on this PC? If not, try to do so. And
then give yourself rights to the registry. A lot of this information
should be under Start-->Help in Windows.

There is no "deleted" registry key, I don't think. It's the fact that
you don't have permissions. Here's an article that may help you:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302853
(Always search Google for errors because, inevitably, someone has
experienced before what you're experiencing now.)

ME:
Okay, I'm logged on as the Computer Administrator, only not the
default account but the one with my name on it. So I should
theoretically have permission. Troublesomely, the article you
directed me to only applies to Windows ME or 98 or 2000; I'm running
XP. I'll google it, but if there's something else I should try let me
know.

So then I was referred here. For the record, I did google it and can
only find stuff on the problem if you're using Office XP on a 98 or
ME system, and I'm using XP as I said.

Dig to the key's lowest level in the right panel in regedit (really, start -
run - type 'regedit' without the quotes - and hit enter) and check to see if
your account's security level has ownership, read/write, etc rights for it?
If not then make sure you can (with your account) read/write to it and all
it's sub-strings.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Ooh, that looks like the problem...I don't have an MSFS registry key in that
folder. I only have one called REG_SZ and it has no set value.

How can I replace it?

 

[Galen]

In JillPole had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Ooh, that looks like the problem...I don't have an MSFS registry key
in that folder. I only have one called REG_SZ and it has no set value.

How can I replace it?

Well, it took me a bit to find an Office XP install here but:

http://kgiii.info/ignore/forjillpole.zip

That is the key exported. You can read it in plain text if you want to
ensure that I mean no harm (always a good idea) but extract it and import it
and it *should* make that key for you with, I hope, appropriate permissions
even.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Wow, thanks!

But since this registry thing is an area where I'm rather inadequate, I have
to ask what you mean by importing it? Do I just save it to the file where it
should have been?

Thank you once more good sir.

 

[Guest]

Okay, I found the "import" button, and got this message:
"Cannot import C:\Documents And Settings\Jill Pole\My
Documents\forjillpole.reg: not all data was successfully written to the
registry; some keys are open by the system or other processes." Will try
closing everything and see if that helps but otherwise do not know quite how
to proceed.

Thanks again for your patience...

 

[Galen]

In JillPole had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Okay, I found the "import" button, and got this message:
"Cannot import C:\Documents And Settings\Jill Pole\My
Documents\forjillpole.reg: not all data was successfully written to
the registry; some keys are open by the system or other processes."
Will try closing everything and see if that helps but otherwise do
not know quite how to proceed.

Thanks again for your patience...

No worries. I'd consider, if worse came to worse, doing a nice clean reboot
and trying it in there. I wonder if there might be something more sinister
afoot but for now we'll see what results this gives us and we'll see if it's
working. Yes you can double click it or you can extract it an import it. As
you see, probably, by reading it - it just puts the values in there in that
key and that's all it does but like all things you should probably check
before importing stuff.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

I meant to come back to this a long time ago...sorry for the delay.
The reboot didn't help. don't know why. I have HijackThis on my computer, so
I did a quick check for anything nasty-o but didn't find anything "sinister
afoot" as you put it, Holmes.
Something else I could try?
Once again, you've been very patient and helpful and I appreciate it.