OFF97: Registry Keys Remain If Mso97.dll Is Loaded During Setup

• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, you should first make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat). Both are hidden files in the Windows folder.

SYMPTOMS

After you perform a maintenance mode installation of Microsoft Office 97 and remove all the Office components, some registry subkeys may remain in the registry. Subkeys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office that are not removed are the following:

   My Computer\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0\BinDirPath

   -and-

   My Computer\HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Common\InstallRoot\
      OfficeBin

CAUSE

This behavior may occur if the file Mso97.dll is loaded into memory when you run Microsoft Office Setup. Mso97.dll may be in memory if a Microsoft Office program unexpectedly quits.

RESOLUTION

To prevent this problem from occurring, restart Microsoft Windows to clear files from memory when a program unexpectedly quits. Restart Windows before you install or remove any program.

For information about removing the registry keys manually, see the "Removing the Two Registry Keys Manually" section in this article.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows 95. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the Changing Keys And Values online Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). Note that you should make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat) before you edit the registry.

Removing the Two Registry Keys Manually

1. On the Start menu, click Run. In the Open box, type "regedit" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK.

2. In the Registry window, click the plus sign (+) to the left of the following keys, in order

         HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
         SOFTWARE
         Microsoft
         Office
   

   to open the following key:

         HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\Microsoft\Office
   

   Then, click the folder to the left of 8.0. The following key appears in the status bar:

         My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0
   

3. To delete the entire 8.0 key, click Delete on the Edit menu, and then click Yes to delete the key.

   To remove the only BinDirPath key, click BinDirPath under the Name column on the right side of the window. Then, click Delete on the Edit menu, and then click Yes.

4. In the Registry window, click the plus sign (+) to the left of the following keys, in order

         HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
         SOFTWARE
         Microsoft
         Office
         8.0
         Common
   

   to open the following key:

         HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Common
   

   Then, click the folder to the left of InstallRoot. The following key appears in the status bar:

         My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\8.0\
         Common\InstallRoot
   

5. To delete the entire InstallRoot key, click Delete on the Edit menu, and then click Yes.

   To remove only the OfficeBin key, click OfficeBin under the Name column on the right side of the window. Click Delete on the Edit menu and click Yes.

6. On the Registry menu, click Exit.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Before this problem occurs, Microsoft Office 97 Setup displays a message that warns you that Mso97.dll is open and that the file is not removed when you click Remove All. If you click Ignore, the file is removed but the registry keys remain.