Microsoft Office doesn't run correctly on a limited account

[Beev]

Our public computer we have just had Office XP installed on it. It runs fine on the Administrator account, but every time you try to open Word, Excel, etc on the limited account it will pop up a box and say "preparing to install Microsoft Office with Frontpage" and then that box disappears and nothing happens.

How do I make it run right?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Sraaz
Our public computer we have just had Office XP installed on it. It runs fine on the Administrator account, but every time you try to open Word, Excel, etc on the limited account it will pop up a box and say "preparing to install Microsoft Office with Frontpage" and then that box disappears and nothing happens.

How do I make it run right?

Log on as an Admin, throw in the Office CDs, start a Repair, and install all the features to disk (except I'd leave out the Microsoft Photo Editor, which I believe is under something like "Accessories").

Off-topic, but if it's a public computer and it happens to be Windows XP Professional, then you may want to check out this as well, if you don't have it fully tightened down already.

 

[Beev]

No good I even tried reinstalling it using the "complete" checkbox. Now it runs through and "gathers information" waits about 15 seconds and then pops up the window and gathers information 6 more times then stops.

 

[RebateMonger]

Lots of discussion about this issue here:

UseNet search for "office xp" limited user.

"Limited User then clicks on the new mail icon and two Windows
Installer dialog boxes pop-up that state "Windows Installer - Preparing to
install..." and then "Please wait while Windows configures Microsoft XP
Professional - Gathering Information". These dialog boxes repeat 6 times
each. This occurs each time the Limited User clicks the new mail, the
Contacts, or the Tasks icons. Other features might cause the installer to
activate, but we have not pursued every option in Outlook to see what does
and does not activate the installer.

MS Knowledge Base article 265194 addresses this issue in Office 2000, but
there does not appear to be any additional information for Office XP."

 

[mechBgon]

If you haven't done this already, temporarily switch the Limited account to Administrator level, run each Office app once to get it settled in, then switch the Limited account back to Limited. I recently reinstalled OfficeXP for someone after a fresh Windows installation, and IIRC that's what I did. Any good?

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
If you haven't done this already, temporarily switch the Limited account to Administrator level, run each Office app once to get it settled in, then switch the Limited account back to Limited. I recently reinstalled OfficeXP for someone after a fresh Windows installation, and IIRC that's what I did. Any good?

Tried that as well I'll check out Rebate's solution tonight when I go back to work, as well as anything else you think I should try.

 

[bruceb]

Get a copy of the Microsoft Windows Installer Cleanup Utility and run it from the main admin account or
in safe mode .. if that does not help, try running it under the User Profile where that Glitch is occurring

You can get it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

 

[Beev]

Well I couldn't run that MS installer cleanup utility, it gave me a VB error. I'm trying to pinpoint it and fix it. In the mean time I gave the guest account admin access and installed Office on that account. It worked fine, until I switched it to a limited account, then the same problem arose.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Sraaz
Well I couldn't run that MS installer cleanup utility, it gave me a VB error. I'm trying to pinpoint it and fix it. In the mean time I gave the guest account admin access and installed Office on that account. It worked fine, until I switched it to a limited account, then the same problem arose.

The guest account? If you're using the Guest account, disable it and make a Limited account and try that instead.

 

[Beev]

Sorry, meant limited. It's just called ______ Guests

 

[Beev]

Well I can't figure out how to fix the error that the cleanup utility is giving me. I double click the installer and it pops up a window that says:

Script: C:\DOCUME~1\NAME\LOCALS~1\Temp\IXP000.TMP\StartMsi.vbs
Line: 1
Char: 1
Error: ActiveX component can't create object: 'Scripting.FileSystemObject'
Code: 800A01AD
Source: Microsoft VBScript runtime error

If anyone has any information on that I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[bruceb]

You can Delete the file that you are referencing in your post above .. then reboot and see what happens
Almost anything in Temp can go (except items under Application Data)
If it is under your User Name\Local Settings\Temp ... it can go .. same with C:\Windows\Temp
and C:\Windows\Prefetch

 

[Beev]

I tried that actually. The file that is giving the error actually creates \IXP000.TMP\StartMsi.vbs when I run it and deletes it when I close the error window.

 

[bruceb]

It could be your computer does not have MS VB installed or it is corrupted

You can download it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta...-48f4-8edd-cdf2d29a79d5&DisplayLang=en

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: bruceb
It could be your computer does not have MS VB installed or it is corrupted

You can download it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta...-48f4-8edd-cdf2d29a79d5&DisplayLang=en

Installed it, same error This is turning out to be quite a bit of work...

 

[boomerang]

Have you looked here?

 

[Slikkster]

This may be the solution to your problem(s). It involves resetting your XP permissions to defaults system-wide. Follow the instructions.

http://winonline.blogspot.com/2005/11/reset-entire-registry-permissions-to.html

You will see that the permissions reset helped numerous individuals that had installation problems.

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: boomerang
Have you looked here?

Trying now.

Originally posted by: Slikkster
This may be the solution to your problem(s). It involves resetting your XP permissions to defaults system-wide. Follow the instructions.

http://winonline.blogspot.com/2005/11/reset-entire-registry-permissions-to.html

You will see that the permissions reset helped numerous individuals that had installation problems.

Can I take away the permissions once I do this and have Office still run? If not then I could simply give the limited account administrator access and not worry about all of the stuff in that link...

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: boomerang
Have you looked here?

No good. Same error

 

[Slikkster]

I'm not sure I understand your question. The link and process will simply restore XP's default permissions. It's not going to change a limited account to an admin account. It's a way to ensure that something in the registry didn't get hosed re: permissions that may be causing your Office woes, in addition to your cleanup utility woes. It's not going to change your settings for a standard "limited" vs. an "admin" account. If you've made some other permissions changes on these accounts, that might be a different story.

Macintosh's OS X has a "repair permissions" routine that's part of regular maintenance, so this is nothing radical.

 

[PurePeon]

log onto your PC with your "Guest" username and do a RUN AS on the office apps (Shift Right Click on the App to get RUN AS) or is it CTRL?) Anyways, run the app with the Administrator Privs and then close the app. Re-launch it and see if it will run as a limited user now.

 

[wnied]

Here ya go:

Uninstall the office installation completely. Reboot. Log in as Administrator. Begin Office reinstall. Upon reinstall, choose custom, right click the selection of what to install, and choose to "Run all from my computer." This will install everything from the office cd, to allow the office installation to be self sufficient. (without having to install anything else from cd in future.) Run all office programs( word, excel, access, etc etc) at least once after install, as the administrator.

Hope this does it for you.
~wnied~

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: Slikkster
I'm not sure I understand your question. The link and process will simply restore XP's default permissions. It's not going to change a limited account to an admin account. It's a way to ensure that something in the registry didn't get hosed re: permissions that may be causing your Office woes, in addition to your cleanup utility woes. It's not going to change your settings for a standard "limited" vs. an "admin" account. If you've made some other permissions changes on these accounts, that might be a different story.

Macintosh's OS X has a "repair permissions" routine that's part of regular maintenance, so this is nothing radical.

Ahh, I see now. I was confused and thought it was basically giving the limited account admin status. I went ahead and followed the directions in your link, though. No luck

Originally posted by: PurePeon
log onto your PC with your "Guest" username and do a RUN AS on the office apps (Shift Right Click on the App to get RUN AS) or is it CTRL?) Anyways, run the app with the Administrator Privs and then close the app. Re-launch it and see if it will run as a limited user now.

No good. It runs fine when I run it as the admin account, but if I try to run it regularly after that it just does the same thing with the installation popups.

Originally posted by: wnied
Here ya go:

Uninstall the office installation completely. Reboot. Log in as Administrator. Begin Office reinstall. Upon reinstall, choose custom, right click the selection of what to install, and choose to "Run all from my computer." This will install everything from the office cd, to allow the office installation to be self sufficient. (without having to install anything else from cd in future.) Run all office programs( word, excel, access, etc etc) at least once after install, as the administrator.

Hope this does it for you.
~wnied~

No good as well.

 

[Slikkster]

how about the Office Installer Cleanup utility? Will it install now?

Also, read this from Microsoft about how and why OfficeXP is installng like this and what your options are:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/orkXP/HA011363071033.aspx

re: the link above: I think your best option, considering the security ramifications, is to create an "Administrative Access Point" vs. giving each user "elevated privileges" as mentioned in the article. You'll see what I mean by reading the article.

 

[PurePeon]

why don't you check the event logs to see why it's stopping. maybe you need to change some privs on some reg keys. the event logs will tell you what's happening.