Installer unable to find valid source for Office SR-1

[Shirley]

I installed Office applications on my PC as Administrator
but I have a problem accessing them as a User. Every time
I open Word or Excel etc, I get the following
messages: "Please wait while Windows configures MS Office
SR-1 Professional." Then:
"Error 1706. No valid source could be found for product
Microsoft Office SR-1 Professional. The Windows installer
cannot continue."

If I press OK, the messages repeat. After pressing OK
three times altogether, the application loads and appears
normal. However, I don't have confidence that the
application will work properly so I am postponing
completion of several large and complex documents for my
Master's degree. So I need help.

Is it OK? Is it necessary to do anything?

As Administrator, the applications appear to be fully
installed. They open as normal.

I have Windows SP4 installed and SP3 for Office on my PC.
All my Microsoft programs are up-to-date.

Actions I have taken include:
1. Enabling my User to share every folder on my computer
(with the default Power User settings)
2. Adding my User to the Security settings for all drives
(this seems to adjust the settings for all folders in that
drive) even where AllUsers is checked.
3. Checking the DCOM settings (ref KB319624) - the DCOM
permissions were already OK; I then followed the remaining
steps in the KB article
4. Checking out KB324906 - Msisip.dll was already the
latest version. I didn't apply the hotfix because it
applies to SP3.
5. I read KB227181 but I don't understand what it is
saying so did nothing.
6. I read KB260310 but it is targeted at Servers. I
couldn't find the equivalent of the "Active Directory
Users and Computers snap-in" for a standalone PC.

I desperately need to have my Office applications
installed properly. I can't wait for a major loss or
corruption of files to find out they are not installed
properly.

I have also posted this message in the Applications
Newsgroup.

Thanking you in anticipation of your help.

Regards

Shirley

 

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

Hi there

Seems like you've gone through all the reasonable steps at analysing the
problem. With respect to article 227181, this isn't relevent to the problem
you're having.

Each time you get a failure like you're getting, an event gets placed into
the application event log (or perhaps system, I can't recall which).

Take a look at the Event Viewier (Control Panel | Administrative Tools)
straight after doing this and paste the message back here. It will likely
contain a big long number and possibly a registry key. This will useful
information in working out what's happening.

Regards

Oli

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Temporarily grant admin rights to the the user account, and try to run
Office apps once that way. Then take the rights away. Does it resolve the
problem? Some older versions of Office require that the user have admin
rights the first time it is run.

 

[Shirley]

Thank you for your prompt reply. The Applications Event
Log has Error 11706, Source MSInstaller with the following
message:
Product: Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1 Professional -- Error
1706. No valid source could be found for product Microsoft
Office 2000 SR-1 Professional. The Windows installer
cannot continue.

There is also a Warning message, EventID 1004:
Detection of product '{00010409-78E1-11D2-B60F-
006097C998E7}', feature 'WordUserData',
component '{8ADD2C93-C8B7-11D1-9C67-0000F81F1B38}'
failed. The
resource 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0
\Word\UserData' does not exist.

Having killed my computer several times in the last couple
of months, I don't fiddle with the registry any more
unless someone tells me exactly what to do!

Hope this helps you find a solution for me.

Regards

Shirley

 

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

Hi Shirley

That's odd. The "feature" that's missing is the registry key that stores
your personal data (like your name and initials and toolbar preferences).
It should just regernate the user data if it's not found in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER and all users should have full control to this area of the
registry.

I would do as Lanwench suggests and give temporary admin rights to the user
to see if that clears it. Failing that, we can take a copy of the
appropriate key from the administrator's account and chuck it into the other
user's HKCU hive. Post back if Lanwench's suggestion doesn't work and I'll
tell you how to do that.

Hope this helps

Oli

 

[Shirley]

Hi Oli

Lanwench's sugestion worked. When I removed my adamin
rights, all MS apps opened with no error messages. However
I have now moved on to check other applications and I have
two other user access problems:

Problem 1
I opened an image file froma CD using Photoshop but was
unable to copy it, Photoshop said I do not have permission
to open the file. Same message regardless of whether I had
admin rights or not.

Problem 2
When I start up as a user, I get a message saying Access
is denied. It seems to be linked to Adaptec CreateCD
because when I click on it, the CreateCD shortcut appears
on the startup toolbar. I can control the timing of the
shortcut appearing by the timing of my clicking OK. The
shortcut on my QuickLaunch toolbar isn't affected. It pops
up in the same order regardless of whether I have clicked
OK. When I start up with admin rights, there is no access
denied message.
I have a vague suspicion that I may have linked the
shortcut to the wrong .exe file but I have removed
CreateCD and reinstalled it to no avail. How can I access
the shortcut to check it out? It doesn't appear in the
Startup folder in StartMenu/Programs, even when hidden
files are shown. Or is this another symptom of my user
stuff not being correct in the Registry?

I think it is probably worth checking the registry, if you
would please send me the instructions.

I am getting so sick of these problems, I wonder if it's
worth having a separate Admin user!

Thanking you again in anticipation

Shirley