Microsoft KB Archive/884463

= You may receive a &quot;Preparing to install&quot; Windows Installer message when you start Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET =

Article ID: 884463

Article Last Modified on 11/14/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Academic Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Enterprise Architect
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Enterprise Developer
 * Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 Academic Edition

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Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure to back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows registry



SYMPTOMS
When you start Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, you may receive the following Microsoft Windows Installer message:

Preparing to install...

This message appears for a few seconds. Then, Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET closes and the message disappears.



CAUSE
This behavior occurs when the license registry keys for the Microsoft Office 2000 component are missing.



WORKAROUND
Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To work around this behavior, you must export the missing registry subkeys from a computer that has a working version of Visual Studio 2005 or of Visual Studio .NET installed and then import the missing registry subkeys to the computer that is experiencing this behavior.

Import the following registry subkey, depending on the version of Visual Studio that you have:  Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, all editions

 Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003  Professional Edition

 Enterprise Architect Edition

 Enterprise Developer Edition

</ul> </li> Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002, all editions

</li></ul>

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STATUS
This behavior is by design.

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Steps to reproduce the behavior
<ol> Install Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET.</li> Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.</li> Delete the ProductID entry and the DigitalProductID entry from the following registry subkey, depending on the version of Visual Studio that you have:

Visual Studio 2005, all editions

Visual Studio .NET 2003 <ul> Professional Edition

</li> Enterprise Architect Edition

</li> Enterprise Developer Edition

</li></ul>

Visual Studio .NET 2002, all editions

</li> Start Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio .NET.</li></ol>

You see the behavior that is mentioned in the &quot;Symptoms&quot; section.

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