I would like to "chime-in" to this post. I am having the IDENTICAL symptoms
reported by Glen after installing MS Office Pro Enterprise Edition 2003 on a
Vista Home Premium system. My system has had all publicly-released Windows
updates applied up to, but not including Vista SP1.

Although I've not tried any of the solutions mentioned in this thread, I
have observed other things that I'd like to add and I'd like to mention the
limited success I've had with my own attempts to fix this.

As I said, I have not tried de-installing and re-installing because the
posts in this thread tell me that will not work. My Office 2003 install was
done under a user account. I considered de-installing and then re-installing
under my Vista Admin account (vice my usual user account), but I've not tried
that yet.

Just as Glen said, each time I try to launch one of the applications in the
Office 2003 suite (I didn't try Outlook, though), the Windows installer
starts and displays the message, ‘Please wait while Windows configures
Microsoft Office ...,’ etc. After a progress bar advances for 10 seconds or
so, the Office application I tried to open eventually appears as you would
have expected. I should add this: This problem also occurs after starting my
system and logging into my user account; without my doing anything
whatsoever, the Windows installer starts shortly after my desktop appears.
When it's done with whatever it's doing (in about 10 seconds), the Windows
installer window simply closes.

However, I have noted the following additional info:
• Opening a file with the appropriate filename extension (.doc, .ppt,
..xls) DOES launch the appropriate application properly, meaning the extra
Windows installer gyrations do not occur.

• Using the Start button selections under Start / Programs / Microsoft
Office / application name will cause the extra Windows installer step.

• Use Explorer and go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11. Then
double-click any of the application executables (EXCEL.EXE, WINWORD.EXE,
POWERPNT.EXE, etc.). The appropriate application WILL launch properly.

My fix? It's not a solution ... Just a work-around. I've created shortcuts
that point to the executables in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11.
This helps a great deal, but as I said, it's not a full-blown solution.

I hope we can find out more about this. Good luck, folks.

Tony


"Glen" wrote:

Every time I launch Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Excel, or Access (The whole
office 2007 suite except for Outlook) I get the message, "Please wait while
windows configures microsoft office enterprise 2007"

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?