Office 2007 will not install on 1 particular Windows 7 machine

[David Kirk]

I have just performed a custom install of Windows 7 Pro on a computer that
has been running Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 successfully for
several years. I had some trouble geting a stable installation of Win 7 but
after an expensive visit to the Geek Squad, which determined that a
particular Windows update was causing the system to crash, I now have a
stable installation. (They disabled that particular update, too.) The
problem is that I am unable to install any of my fully-licensed copies of
Office 2007 on this machine, even though I have it running happily on two
other machines using WIndows 7. When I try to install it, I get through to
the license key dialogue and enter the proper key. The installation appears
to begin in that the progress bar progresses a tiny amount but even after an
hour or more, nothing is installed. I have tried installing it in safe mode
and get a dialogue, the gist of which is that "there's a problem." I have
tried running the executable file as admin. I've checked to see whether or
not there has been a partial installation that needs to be removed buut no
Office products are showing up. I found one promising article about running
a series of command prompts to remove the "rgstrtn.lck" file but none of the
commands was recognized. I am really stuck and desperately need some help!
Many thanks!!

 

[DL]

What exactly do you mean by Custom Install of Win7?
What version of Office 2007 is involved?

 

[LVTravel]

I have just performed a custom install of Windows 7 Pro on a computer that
has been running Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 successfully for
several years. I had some trouble geting a stable installation of Win 7
but
after an expensive visit to the Geek Squad, which determined that a
particular Windows update was causing the system to crash, I now have a
stable installation. (They disabled that particular update, too.) The
problem is that I am unable to install any of my fully-licensed copies of
Office 2007 on this machine, even though I have it running happily on two
other machines using WIndows 7. When I try to install it, I get through
to
the license key dialogue and enter the proper key. The installation
appears
to begin in that the progress bar progresses a tiny amount but even after
an
hour or more, nothing is installed. I have tried installing it in safe
mode
and get a dialogue, the gist of which is that "there's a problem." I have
tried running the executable file as admin. I've checked to see whether
or
not there has been a partial installation that needs to be removed buut no
Office products are showing up. I found one promising article about
running
a series of command prompts to remove the "rgstrtn.lck" file but none of
the
commands was recognized. I am really stuck and desperately need some
help!
Many thanks!!

I hope you are attempting to install Office 2007 Home and Student or a
volume licensed version of Office as those are the only two versions that
allow installation on more than two concurrent machines. If this is one of
the versions you are installing then what exactly is the error messages you
are receiving not the "gist" of the message. Exact wording, including error
codes, is necessary.

 

[David Kirk]

A "custom install" of WIndows 7 is an option that I believe was introduced
with Windows 7. When installing, there are two options: upgrade and custom
install. opgrade upgrades the OS and leaves all programs and files intact;
custom install is the equivalent of a clean install that wipes out all the
other programs and files.

The version of Windows 7 is Pro; the Office version is 2007 Enterprise and
it is an academic license. I will try to do the install again in safe mode
and capture the exact erorr message. When trying to install in normal mode,
I can tell you that the installation basically hangs and that the only way I
can stop it is to shut down the system manually (pushing the power button) as
all other mouse control is gove when the installation of Office hangs.

 

[LVTravel]

A "custom install" of WIndows 7 is an option that I believe was introduced
with Windows 7. When installing, there are two options: upgrade and
custom
install. opgrade upgrades the OS and leaves all programs and files
intact;
custom install is the equivalent of a clean install that wipes out all the
other programs and files.

The version of Windows 7 is Pro; the Office version is 2007 Enterprise
and
it is an academic license. I will try to do the install again in safe
mode
and capture the exact erorr message. When trying to install in normal
mode,
I can tell you that the installation basically hangs and that the only way
I
can stop it is to shut down the system manually (pushing the power button)
as
all other mouse control is gove when the installation of Office hangs.

David, I would ensure that:

1st, you have hardware and drivers that support Win 7. If you haven't
please run the Win 7 Upgrade Advisor,
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

2nd. I would never take a computer to "Geek Squad" as the personnel there
may be totally unreliable for computer repairs and advice (probably more so
than on here.) As this was a fresh install of Win 7, I would recommend
reinstalling from scratch again, ensuring all updates to the OS are
completed prior to installing Office 2007 Enterprise. If you still
experience issues you need to contact Microsoft at the Enterprise free
assistance number provided when you obtained the Office product you have.

 

[DL]

In edition to LVTravel's comments do NOT install any driver updates from MS
Update

 

[LVTravel]

In edition to LVTravel's comments do NOT install any driver updates from
MS Update

***SNIP***

Darn, I always forget to give that very important piece of information...
Thanks.

Always download drivers from the computer manufacturer's or the individual
component (video, network, sound, etc.) manufacturer's web site for your
operating system.

 

[LVTravel]

I spent 3.5 hours on the phone today with MS tech support, first on the OS
side then on the Office side. Everyone seems to have concluded that the
OS
installation is fine. We've spent hours trying every trick in the book to
get Office to install and it flat out refuses to do so. The matter has
been
escalated to a "research team" and I am to receive a call tomorrow morning
to
resolve the problem. I appreciate the driver advice and will certainly
take
it if these folks conclude I need to reinstall the OS. This, my friends,
is
a nightmare.

At least you have MS working on it. Hope it all comes out OK even though
you have now entered the ''''twilight zone'''' (I hate computers, I love
computers, I hate computers, I love computers.......