Technitard

Until recently, every time I started any MS Office 2007 application on my Windows Vista PC, I received the following message:

Please wait while Windows Configures Microsoft Office 2007

I thought I had this one beat, but it turns out that the my previous solution worked only for Outlook, and only until the next reboot. Since then I’ve check many a forum to find a solution for the problem. Many that I’ve seen have included extensive editing of the Windows registry and a complete manual uninstall and reinstall of MS Office 2007.

Ok. I have good news, and bad news. Which do you want to read first? Ok. The good news:

Fortunately, there’s an easy workaround for this problem:

1. Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 and find the executable (.exe) files for each application you want to use.

2. Right click on the file and create a desktop shortcut.

3. Click on that to start the application, and you shouldn’t see the annoying “configuring” message again.

The new shortcuts work properly because you have created them within your user account and they have the correct permissions. If you take a look at the permissions ( properties > security ) of the shortcuts the installer created, you will most likely see that they are a bunch of crap.

The bad news is that I haven’t yet found a proper explanation or solution to this problem that works consistently. If you have, please post it here.

If you own an Acer Aspire PC running Windows Vista, you are no stranger to problems and frustration. Microsoft, in it’s infinite greed, decided to release a basic home version of Windows Vista that was completely useless. It did this so PC builders such as Acer would be compelled to fork over an additional 10% for the premium version of Vista. Which they did. Acer, however, did not take into account the additional memory requirements of the Vista Premium, and unloaded a bunch of underpowered computers that do not run satisfactorily as purchased. There is a pending class action lawsuit to address this ripoff, fraud, or whatever you want to call it. But I digress.

If you attempt to install MS Outlook Enterprise on your system, but every time you start an Office application, you have to go through a lengthy configuration process, this is probably what is happening – > When you purchased your Acer system, you had the trial version of MS Outlook installed. This installation had an add in in an Acer application called eDataSecurity Management. When you uninstalled the trial version of Outlook, this add in was not uninstalled. Now, when you start your shiney new Outlook Enterprise, your add in triggers configuration based on the old trial version of Outlook.

Solution: The quick answer is to uninstall Acer eDataSecurity Management. The more lengthy, and probably better solution, would be just to remove the add in. A subject for another post.