I'm not going to waste your time and mine by arguing with Peter.
The 2007 Office System launches from Windows Installer (MsiInstall)
shortcuts. One can argue whether or not this was a wise choice, but that
won't help you with your problem.
Each time you start an Office 2007 application, the Windows Installer engine
checks the registry to see whether proper versions of needed files are
installed. If a file is not installed or is damaged, Windows Installer will
initiate an Install-On-Demand to repair anything that is missing or damaged.
If a user account does not have Read permission (at least) to the registry
keys or subkeys that Office is trying to check, Windows Installer cannot
locate the information it needs, so it 'presumes' the installation is
incomplete or damaged and will reinstall the Office application in question.
One can also argue whether this was a wise choice, but that won't help you
solve your problem, either.
All the above is explained on Microsoft's website.
Of all the methods available to grant the MSI installer the permissions it
needs, the one to try first is to reset registry permissions to their
defaults - the way they were when Windows was first installed. This is the
easiest method, and it works not only for Office 2007, but in most any
instance when installations or uninstalls fail to proceed due to inadequate
permissions in the registry. And, as I wrote in my original post, it worked
for me, as it worked for other posters in other newsgroups and web forums.
Why did those @#$% permissions get changed in the first place? Based on my
research, it probably wasn't our fault or doing.
If insufficient registry permissions is /not/ the cause, resetting them
won't help you. You can find out if registry permissions is the cause in
your case by reviewing entries in Event Viewer. Here is an example:
Detection of product '{91130409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}', feature
'EXCELFiles' failed during request for component
'{5572D282-F5E5-11D3-A8E8-0060083FD8D3}'
If you see errors that look like this, your problem is probably caused by
insufficient registry permissions, and the method described by Aaron Stebner
in the article I linked is the easiest way to solve the problem. It's much
easier than following the geek-speak used here...
"Windows Installer-related event IDs are logged in the Application log when
you start an Office program"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911682
....and it beats the heck out of a clean install.
Daddy
