Windows XP Pro wants Office 2000 Installation cd for Windows Searc

[Ruckus]

We've got this annoying problem on some of our workstations where when the
user attempts to do a Windows Search on any drive (Local or Network) they get
an Office 2000 Installation dialogue and the Office 2000 cd is requested.
Providing the cd does not help, it just fails the install and retries (4
times total). For now we just have the two affected users cancelling the
install four times. After cancelling it, searching works fine, and it only
happens the first time you open the search window.

It only seems to occur to certain users who have new profiles (The problem
is user-specific on certain machines, other users can use the same machines
without problems).

I've tried the basics like reinstalling office, I've even removed the local
user profiles. I've stopped short of deleting the roaming profiles for the
affected user, as they have a lot of other programs which have Profile based
configurations, not to mention their files.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Windows Installer starts each time that a new user starts an Office 2000 program
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312596

 

[Ruckus]

But which part of Office 2000 affects Windows file searching?
It runs the installer when you open a search window. My only theory is it
has something to do with those stupid search assistants (only Einstein is
Cool), but even disabling those doesn't help.

For future reference, I'm an IT Assistant in charge of 3 Active Directory
Domains, 4 servers, about 30 Workstations, and an IPSec VPN network
connecting two sites transparently via a combination of Radio Links and DSL
Technology, so if you need to, you can get a bit more technical.