'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\'

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

A number of people had reported the Windows Installer starting up each
time they run Office Enterprise 2007 on Vista.

I said in an earlier post that it was "normal" for the Installer to
start up when starting Office as a new user. This was certainly the case
on Office 2003, but it seems Office 2007 is different - the Office
programs check the user profile and user registry and populate as
necessary - the Installer does _not_ start up in Office 2007 for a new
Vista user.

On my own machine, I disabled UAC and Virtualization before installing
anything, and all my software worked perfectly first time.

In order to "break" it, I had to delete the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip key,
then I logged in as a normal user and this time I got the exact error
where it says 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\' The resource does not exist.

However, on my system the Windows Installer re-created the key and after
the first run of Office, the Installer screen never comes back.

Note that although I was logged in as a user who does NOT have write
permission to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, the Windows Installer was still able to
create the key! It runs as 'Local System'.

For the other users, there's two things I'd try 1) Deleting this key and
then run Office and see if it comes back, 2) Check the registry
permissions on it. If the key _is_ being created, it does not make much
sense for the Installer to say the resource is "missing".

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Gerry,

Are you running 32 bit or 64 bit on Vista?
Do you have the verbose setup logs available for the chain of events you're seeing?

===========
Hi,

A number of people had reported the Windows Installer starting up each
time they run Office Enterprise 2007 on Vista.

I said in an earlier post that it was "normal" for the Installer to
start up when starting Office as a new user. This was certainly the case
on Office 2003, but it seems Office 2007 is different - the Office
programs check the user profile and user registry and populate as
necessary - the Installer does _not_ start up in Office 2007 for a new
Vista user.

On my own machine, I disabled UAC and Virtualization before installing
anything, and all my software worked perfectly first time.

In order to "break" it, I had to delete the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip key,
then I logged in as a normal user and this time I got the exact error
where it says 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\' The resource does not exist.

However, on my system the Windows Installer re-created the key and after
the first run of Office, the Installer screen never comes back.

Note that although I was logged in as a user who does NOT have write
permission to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, the Windows Installer was still able to
create the key! It runs as 'Local System'.

For the other users, there's two things I'd try 1) Deleting this key and
then run Office and see if it comes back, 2) Check the registry
permissions on it. If the key _is_ being created, it does not make much
sense for the Installer to say the resource is "missing".

--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)<<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[kimwindsor]

Hi Gerry,

Are you running 32 bit or 64 bit on Vista?
Do you have the verbose setup logs available for the chain of events you're seeing?

===========
Hi,

A number of people had reported the Windows Installer starting up each
time they run Office Enterprise 2007 on Vista.

I said in an earlier post that it was "normal" for the Installer to
start up when starting Office as a new user. This was certainly the case
on Office 2003, but it seems Office 2007 is different - the Office
programs check the user profile and user registry and populate as
necessary - the Installer does _not_ start up in Office 2007 for a new
Vista user.

On my own machine, I disabled UAC and Virtualization before installing
anything, and all my software worked perfectly first time.

In order to "break" it, I had to delete the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip key,
then I logged in as a normal user and this time I got the exact error
where it says 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\' The resource does not exist.

However, on my system the Windows Installer re-created the key and after
the first run of Office, the Installer screen never comes back.

Note that although I was logged in as a user who does NOT have write
permission to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, the Windows Installer was still able to
create the key! It runs as 'Local System'.

For the other users, there's two things I'd try 1) Deleting this key and
then run Office and see if it comes back, 2) Check the registry
permissions on it. If the key _is_ being created, it does not make much
sense for the Installer to say the resource is "missing".

--
Gerry Hickman (London UK)<<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Gerry,
I read with great interest about your experimenting with the HCR\.pip\
registry key... I am one of the users curently experiencing the
installer message issues on Office 2007, however I'm fairly sure the
issue has nothing to do with the UAC or Virtualisation (I am running
Vista). Office 2007 had been running fine for a few weeks until I
installed and removed Office XP (both ran fine while installed
together). The messages began showing up after removing Office XP and
I have been unable to find a solution. The event viewer is showing
the "resource does not exist" regarding the .pip key so I attempted to
delete the key (using regedit) but received an access denied error
(due to permissions). I tried to alter the permissions (none
indicated) without luck. I have had multiple attempts at reinstalling
Office 2007 while ensuring that Office XP is not still present on the
machine (Windows Installer Clean Up utility) and am still in the dark
with this issue. I have also tried the "repair" option and run the
office diagnostics with no effect at all. One user with the issue has
done a complete reinstall of Vista with success, however I do not wish
to go through this process... I am considering ditching 2007 and
running with XP again but I wondered if you had any further
suggestions that might lead to a resolution, I have installed every
office and vista update available in the hope something might be reset
but this has not yielded any results either. If you have any
information or could direct me to someone who might it would be most
appreciated...
Regards

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Kim,

Is this a Vista 32 bit or 64 bit installation?

The Registry key you mentioned, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\
wouldn't necessarily be used by (32bit) Office in a Windows 64-bit environment, even if it's there and could create a
permissions issue.

These steps may be helpful to you in resolving this (have one prior instance that was resolved through these steps). Let us know:

1- Reregister MSIEXEC (.exe) [MS Windows Installer]

2- Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007.

3- In the registry take ownership and backup/export then delete the following HKCR) key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\.pip

4- Install Office 2007 again (but might want to restart the PC first).

============Gerry,
I read with great interest about your experimenting with the HCR\.pip\
registry key... I am one of the users curently experiencing the
installer message issues on Office 2007, however I'm fairly sure the
issue has nothing to do with the UAC or Virtualisation (I am running
Vista). Office 2007 had been running fine for a few weeks until I
installed and removed Office XP (both ran fine while installed
together). The messages began showing up after removing Office XP and
I have been unable to find a solution. The event viewer is showing
the "resource does not exist" regarding the .pip key so I attempted to
delete the key (using regedit) but received an access denied error
(due to permissions). I tried to alter the permissions (none
indicated) without luck. I have had multiple attempts at reinstalling
Office 2007 while ensuring that Office XP is not still present on the
machine (Windows Installer Clean Up utility) and am still in the dark
with this issue. I have also tried the "repair" option and run the
office diagnostics with no effect at all. One user with the issue has
done a complete reinstall of Vista with success, however I do not wish
to go through this process... I am considering ditching 2007 and
running with XP again but I wondered if you had any further
suggestions that might lead to a resolution, I have installed every
office and vista update available in the hope something might be reset
but this has not yielded any results either. If you have any
information or could direct me to someone who might it would be most
appreciated...
Regards >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[kimwindsor]

Hi Kim,

Is this a Vista 32 bit or 64 bit installation?

The Registry key you mentioned, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\
wouldn't necessarily be used by (32bit) Office in a Windows 64-bit environment, even if it's there and could create a
permissions issue.

These steps may be helpful to you in resolving this (have one prior instance that was resolved through these steps). Let us know:

1- Reregister MSIEXEC (.exe) [MS Windows Installer]

2- Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007.

3- In the registry take ownership and backup/export then delete the following HKCR) key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\.pip

4- Install Office 2007 again (but might want to restart the PC first).


Gerry,
I read with great interest about your experimenting with the HCR\.pip\
registry key... I am one of the users curently experiencing the
installer message issues on Office 2007, however I'm fairly sure the
issue has nothing to do with the UAC or Virtualisation (I am running
Vista). Office 2007 had been running fine for a few weeks until I
installed and removed Office XP (both ran fine while installed
together). The messages began showing up after removing Office XP and
I have been unable to find a solution. The event viewer is showing
the "resource does not exist" regarding the .pip key so I attempted to
delete the key (using regedit) but received an access denied error
(due to permissions). I tried to alter the permissions (none
indicated) without luck. I have had multiple attempts at reinstalling
Office 2007 while ensuring that Office XP is not still present on the
machine (Windows Installer Clean Up utility) and am still in the dark
with this issue. I have also tried the "repair" option and run the
office diagnostics with no effect at all. One user with the issue has
done a complete reinstall of Vista with success, however I do not wish
to go through this process... I am considering ditching 2007 and
running with XP again but I wondered if you had any further
suggestions that might lead to a resolution, I have installed every
office and vista update available in the hope something might be reset
but this has not yielded any results either. If you have any
information or could direct me to someone who might it would be most
appreciated...
Regards >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Bob, thanks for taking the time to provide some info. The Vista
installation is 32-bit. I have just reached step 3 in your
instruction set and cannot find the key you list (I have done a
registry search)... is there a different key for 32-bit environment ?

 

[kimwindsor]

Hi Kim,

Is this a Vista 32 bit or 64 bit installation?

The Registry key you mentioned, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\
wouldn't necessarily be used by (32bit) Office in a Windows 64-bit environment, even if it's there and could create a
permissions issue.

These steps may be helpful to you in resolving this (have one prior instance that was resolved through these steps). Let us know:

1- Reregister MSIEXEC (.exe) [MS Windows Installer]

2- Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007.

3- In the registry take ownership and backup/export then delete the following HKCR) key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\.pip

4- Install Office 2007 again (but might want to restart the PC first).

============ >><[email protected]> wrote in messagenews:[email protected]...

Gerry,
I read with great interest about your experimenting with the HCR\.pip\
registry key... I am one of the users curently experiencing the
installer message issues on Office 2007, however I'm fairly sure the
issue has nothing to do with the UAC or Virtualisation (I am running
Vista). Office 2007 had been running fine for a few weeks until I
installed and removed Office XP (both ran fine while installed
together). The messages began showing up after removing Office XP and
I have been unable to find a solution. The event viewer is showing
the "resource does not exist" regarding the .pip key so I attempted to
delete the key (using regedit) but received an access denied error
(due to permissions). I tried to alter the permissions (none
indicated) without luck. I have had multiple attempts at reinstalling
Office 2007 while ensuring that Office XP is not still present on the
machine (Windows Installer Clean Up utility) and am still in the dark
with this issue. I have also tried the "repair" option and run the
office diagnostics with no effect at all. One user with the issue has
done a complete reinstall of Vista with success, however I do not wish
to go through this process... I am considering ditching 2007 and
running with XP again but I wondered if you had any further
suggestions that might lead to a resolution, I have installed every
office and vista update available in the hope something might be reset
but this has not yielded any results either. If you have any
information or could direct me to someone who might it would be most
appreciated...
Regards >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Bob, thanks for taking the time to provide some info. The Vista
installation is 32-bit. I have just reached step 3 in your
instruction set and cannot find the key you list (I have done a
registry search)... is there a different key for 32-bit environment ?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I tried a combination of your suggestions with a manual removal of
Office 2007 and reinstall... no luck, butits interesting as
somethings were different about this install, previous installs have
kept the same colour scheme (indicating Office keeps personal settings
on the machine) but this latest one didn't (reverted back to
original). I asking the obvious, but is there a chance that there is
retained data somewhere that is causing this trouble ? Is there any
other way to completely remove any trace of Office from the machine (I
don't have a system restore point prior to the Office XP install). I
enjoyed the cryptic message when looking at the permissions on
the .pip key - "You do not have permissions to view the current
permission settings for .pip, but you can make permission changes" ...
hmmmm. Well at least there's still a little humour in the issue ;-)

 

[kimwindsor]

Hi Kim,
Is this a Vista 32 bit or 64 bit installation?
The Registry key you mentioned, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\
wouldn't necessarily be used by (32bit) Office in a Windows 64-bit environment, even if it's there and could create a
permissions issue.
These steps may be helpful to you in resolving this (have one prior instance that was resolved through these steps). Let us know:
1- Reregister MSIEXEC (.exe) [MS Windows Installer]
2- Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007.
3- In the registry take ownership and backup/export then delete the following HKCR) key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\.pip
4- Install Office 2007 again (but might want to restart the PC first).
Gerry,
I read with great interest about your experimenting with the HCR\.pip\
registry key... I am one of the users curently experiencing the
installer message issues on Office 2007, however I'm fairly sure the
issue has nothing to do with the UAC or Virtualisation (I am running
Vista). Office 2007 had been running fine for a few weeks until I
installed and removed Office XP (both ran fine while installed
together). The messages began showing up after removing Office XP and
I have been unable to find a solution. The event viewer is showing
the "resource does not exist" regarding the .pip key so I attempted to
delete the key (using regedit) but received an access denied error
(due to permissions). I tried to alter the permissions (none
indicated) without luck. I have had multiple attempts at reinstalling
Office 2007 while ensuring that Office XP is not still present on the
machine (Windows Installer Clean Up utility) and am still in the dark
with this issue. I have also tried the "repair" option and run the
office diagnostics with no effect at all. One user with the issue has
done a complete reinstall of Vista with success, however I do not wish
to go through this process... I am considering ditching 2007 and
running with XP again but I wondered if you had any further
suggestions that might lead to a resolution, I have installed every
office and vista update available in the hope something might be reset
but this has not yielded any results either. If you have any
information or could direct me to someone who might it would be most
appreciated...
Regards >>

Bob, thanks for taking the time to provide some info. The Vista
installation is 32-bit. I have just reached step 3 in your
instruction set and cannot find the key you list (I have done a
registry search)... is there a different key for 32-bit environment ?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I tried a combination of your suggestions with a manual removal of
Office 2007 and reinstall... no luck, butits interesting as
somethings were different about this install, previous installs have
kept the same colour scheme (indicating Office keeps personal settings
on the machine) but this latest one didn't (reverted back to
original). I asking the obvious, but is there a chance that there is
retained data somewhere that is causing this trouble ? Is there any
other way to completely remove any trace of Office from the machine (I
don't have a system restore point prior to the Office XP install). I
enjoyed the cryptic message when looking at the permissions on
the .pip key - "You do not have permissions to view the current
permission settings for .pip, but you can make permission changes" ...
hmmmm. Well at least there's still a little humour in the issue ;-)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well it just keeps getting better... I'm saving money on haircuts I
assure you ! My installation of OXP is now doing the same thing with
O2007 unistalled ! I cannot use either Office Suite without this
issue.

 

[kimwindsor]

On 11 May, 00:24, (e-mail address removed) wrote:

On 10 May, 22:11, "Bob Buckland ?:-\)" <75214.226(At Beautiful
Downtown)compuserve.com> wrote:
Hi Kim,
Is this a Vista 32 bit or 64 bit installation?
The Registry key you mentioned, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\
wouldn't necessarily be used by (32bit) Office in a Windows 64-bit environment, even if it's there and could create a
permissions issue.
These steps may be helpful to you in resolving this (have one prior instance that was resolved through these steps). Let us know:
1- Reregister MSIEXEC (.exe) [MS Windows Installer]
2- Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007.
3- In the registry take ownership and backup/export then delete the following HKCR) key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\.pip
4- Install Office 2007 again (but might want to restart the PC first).
Gerry,
I read with great interest about your experimenting with the HCR\.pip\
registry key... I am one of the users curently experiencing the
installer message issues on Office 2007, however I'm fairly sure the
issue has nothing to do with the UAC or Virtualisation (I am running
Vista). Office 2007 had been running fine for a few weeks until I
installed and removed Office XP (both ran fine while installed
together). The messages began showing up after removing Office XP and
I have been unable to find a solution. The event viewer is showing
the "resource does not exist" regarding the .pip key so I attempted to
delete the key (using regedit) but received an access denied error
(due to permissions). I tried to alter the permissions (none
indicated) without luck. I have had multiple attempts at reinstalling
Office 2007 while ensuring that Office XP is not still present on the
machine (Windows Installer Clean Up utility) and am still in the dark
with this issue. I have also tried the "repair" option and run the
office diagnostics with no effect at all. One user with the issue has
done a complete reinstall of Vista with success, however I do not wish
to go through this process... I am considering ditching 2007 and
running with XP again but I wondered if you had any further
suggestions that might lead to a resolution, I have installed every
office and vista update available in the hope something might be reset
but this has not yielded any results either. If you have any
information or could direct me to someone who might it would be most
appreciated...
Regards >>
--
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
Bob, thanks for taking the time to provide some info. The Vista
installation is 32-bit. I have just reached step 3 in your
instruction set and cannot find the key you list (I have done a
registry search)... is there a different key for 32-bit environment ?- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

I tried a combination of your suggestions with a manual removal of
Office 2007 and reinstall... no luck, butits interesting as
somethings were different about this install, previous installs have
kept the same colour scheme (indicating Office keeps personal settings
on the machine) but this latest one didn't (reverted back to
original). I asking the obvious, but is there a chance that there is
retained data somewhere that is causing this trouble ? Is there any
other way to completely remove any trace of Office from the machine (I
don't have a system restore point prior to the Office XP install). I
enjoyed the cryptic message when looking at the permissions on
the .pip key - "You do not have permissions to view the current
permission settings for .pip, but you can make permission changes" ...
hmmmm. Well at least there's still a little humour in the issue ;-)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well it just keeps getting better... I'm saving money on haircuts I
assure you ! My installation of OXP is now doing the same thing with
O2007 unistalled ! I cannot use either Office Suite without this
issue.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well a serious amount of hard work and peserverance has paid off...
<insert ear-to-ear grin here>!!! I have resolved the issue on my
computer and am confident the following steps should do the same for
others experiencing this problem. After quite a bit of messing around
I was fairly sure that it the problem was due to a permissions issue
in Vista. Checking the Event Viewer numerous times and seeing the
references to registry keys that couldn't be accessed helped confirm
this. Trying to alter the permissions on some of these keys I also
noticed that nearly every Office relevant key would give an "access is
denied" when attempting to open them. None of these keys had any
permissions granted to them which struck me as strange. I attempted
to replace all permissions in the HKCR folder but found regedit would
either crash or return a failed message and the permissions would not
be changed. I was now determined to have the access that I deserved
as an administrator on my own computer !! SubInACL utility gave me
the power I needed, and all permissions were changed and the
configuration messages disappeared. It was probably overkill in
assigning permissions to every key in the registry but I was unsure of
what keys Office needed to access so I thought it best to alter them
all (this may be a security concern to some so it might be worth
coming up with a list of keys needed). To answer the question why it
was necessary to gain back permission of these keys in the first place
is beyond me, I'm not a programmer or developer but I hope someone who
is can shed some light on the issue. Whether the problem lies with
Vista or Office I don't know either. But anyway, onto the steps that
are oh so important... use them at your own risk - I can't guarantee
they'll work and you could possible do damage:

- download and install SubInACL (download from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b&displaylang=en
)
- open notepad and paste in the following text

cd /d "%programfiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f

- save in notepad as fix_office_permissions.cmd
- double click the newly created file and allow to run (took about
5-10 mins on my system)

To the best of my knowledge these are the only steps on the internet
that deal specifically with this problem so I would love to know if
they work for others...
Cheers and best of luck all !!!

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

This makes sense to me. As I said in my original post "Check the
permissions on the key". I'll bet this is a design flaw either in Vista
or Office 2007 Setup.

On 11 May, 00:24, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
On 10 May, 22:11, "Bob Buckland ?:-\)" <75214.226(At Beautiful
Downtown)compuserve.com> wrote:
Hi Kim,
Is this a Vista 32 bit or 64 bit installation?
The Registry key you mentioned, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pip\
wouldn't necessarily be used by (32bit) Office in a Windows 64-bit environment, even if it's there and could create a
permissions issue.
These steps may be helpful to you in resolving this (have one prior instance that was resolved through these steps). Let us know:
1- Reregister MSIEXEC (.exe) [MS Windows Installer]
2- Uninstall Microsoft Office 2007.
3- In the registry take ownership and backup/export then delete the following HKCR) key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WOW6432Node\.pip
4- Install Office 2007 again (but might want to restart the PC first).
Gerry,
I read with great interest about your experimenting with the HCR\.pip\
registry key... I am one of the users curently experiencing the
installer message issues on Office 2007, however I'm fairly sure the
issue has nothing to do with the UAC or Virtualisation (I am running
Vista). Office 2007 had been running fine for a few weeks until I
installed and removed Office XP (both ran fine while installed
together). The messages began showing up after removing Office XP and
I have been unable to find a solution. The event viewer is showing
the "resource does not exist" regarding the .pip key so I attempted to
delete the key (using regedit) but received an access denied error
(due to permissions). I tried to alter the permissions (none
indicated) without luck. I have had multiple attempts at reinstalling
Office 2007 while ensuring that Office XP is not still present on the
machine (Windows Installer Clean Up utility) and am still in the dark
with this issue. I have also tried the "repair" option and run the
office diagnostics with no effect at all. One user with the issue has
done a complete reinstall of Vista with success, however I do not wish
to go through this process... I am considering ditching 2007 and
running with XP again but I wondered if you had any further
suggestions that might lead to a resolution, I have installed every
office and vista update available in the hope something might be reset
but this has not yielded any results either. If you have any
information or could direct me to someone who might it would be most
appreciated...
Regards >>
--
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
Bob, thanks for taking the time to provide some info. The Vista
installation is 32-bit. I have just reached step 3 in your
instruction set and cannot find the key you list (I have done a
registry search)... is there a different key for 32-bit environment ?- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
I tried a combination of your suggestions with a manual removal of
Office 2007 and reinstall... no luck, butits interesting as
somethings were different about this install, previous installs have
kept the same colour scheme (indicating Office keeps personal settings
on the machine) but this latest one didn't (reverted back to
original). I asking the obvious, but is there a chance that there is
retained data somewhere that is causing this trouble ? Is there any
other way to completely remove any trace of Office from the machine (I
don't have a system restore point prior to the Office XP install). I
enjoyed the cryptic message when looking at the permissions on
the .pip key - "You do not have permissions to view the current
permission settings for .pip, but you can make permission changes" ...
hmmmm. Well at least there's still a little humour in the issue ;-)- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

Well it just keeps getting better... I'm saving money on haircuts I
assure you ! My installation of OXP is now doing the same thing with
O2007 unistalled ! I cannot use either Office Suite without this
issue.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well a serious amount of hard work and peserverance has paid off...
<insert ear-to-ear grin here>!!! I have resolved the issue on my
computer and am confident the following steps should do the same for
others experiencing this problem. After quite a bit of messing around
I was fairly sure that it the problem was due to a permissions issue
in Vista. Checking the Event Viewer numerous times and seeing the
references to registry keys that couldn't be accessed helped confirm
this. Trying to alter the permissions on some of these keys I also
noticed that nearly every Office relevant key would give an "access is
denied" when attempting to open them. None of these keys had any
permissions granted to them which struck me as strange. I attempted
to replace all permissions in the HKCR folder but found regedit would
either crash or return a failed message and the permissions would not
be changed. I was now determined to have the access that I deserved
as an administrator on my own computer !! SubInACL utility gave me
the power I needed, and all permissions were changed and the
configuration messages disappeared. It was probably overkill in
assigning permissions to every key in the registry but I was unsure of
what keys Office needed to access so I thought it best to alter them
all (this may be a security concern to some so it might be worth
coming up with a list of keys needed). To answer the question why it
was necessary to gain back permission of these keys in the first place
is beyond me, I'm not a programmer or developer but I hope someone who
is can shed some light on the issue. Whether the problem lies with
Vista or Office I don't know either. But anyway, onto the steps that
are oh so important... use them at your own risk - I can't guarantee
they'll work and you could possible do damage:

- download and install SubInACL (download from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...56-d8fe-4a91-93cf-ed6985e3927b&displaylang=en
)
- open notepad and paste in the following text

cd /d "%programfiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /
grant=system=f

- save in notepad as fix_office_permissions.cmd
- double click the newly created file and allow to run (took about
5-10 mins on my system)

To the best of my knowledge these are the only steps on the internet
that deal specifically with this problem so I would love to know if
they work for others...
Cheers and best of luck all !!!

 

[sandiego]

actually, all it takes is creating HKLM/software/classes/.pip .

The problem occurs because .pip is looked for by a process running in
machine context, while the key .pip exists in HKCU.