Microsoft KB Archive/236427

= You receive an "Error 1402. Could not open key" error message when you run Office 2000 Setup =

Article ID: 236427

Article Last Modified on 4/3/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition
 * Microsoft Office 2000 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Office 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition
 * Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition
 * Microsoft Access 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q236427



WARNING:This information is preliminary and has not been confirmed or tested by Microsoft. Use only with discretion.



SYMPTOMS
When you try to install Microsoft Office 2000, an error message similar to the following appears:

Error 1402. Could not open key: . System error 1009.

Verify that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact your support personnel.

where  is the name of a key that Office Setup is attempting to write to the Windows registry.



CAUSE
This problem may occur when the following conditions are true:
 * You are running Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me).
 * You have turned on User Profiles.
 * There is a problem with the active profile.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, follow these steps.

Method 1: Check for registry damage
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) and Microsoft Windows 98 include a tool called Registry Checker that can scan your registry for damage (corruption), and, if necessary, restore a backup of the registry. Follow the steps for your operating system to use Registry Checker to scan your registry:

For Windows Me:
 Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click System Information. On the Tools menu, click Registry Checker. You may receive the following error message:

Windows encountered an error accessing the system registry. Windows will restart the computer and repair the system registry for you.

If you receive this error message, restart your computer.

If you do not receive the error message, you can choose to compact and repair damage to the internal data structure of the system registry by following these steps:  Close all programs that are running. Click Start and point to Run. In the Open box, type the following and then click OK:

scanreg /fix

 Click Yes to restart the computer.</li></ol> </li> Run Office Setup.</li></ol>

If the problem continues, try method 2 or method 3.

For Windows 98:

 * 1) Restart the computer, press and hold down CTRL until the Windows 98 Startup menu appears, and then choose Command prompt only.
 * 2) At the command prompt, type scanreg /fix and then press ENTER.
 * 3) After the Registry Checker tool finishes repairing the registry, press ENTER.
 * 4) At the command prompt, type scanreg /opt and then press ENTER.

NOTE: The /opt command-line switch causes the Registry Checker tool to optimize the registry by removing unused space.
 * 1) Restart the computer.
 * 2) Run Office Setup.

If the problem continues, try method 2 or method 3.

Method 2: Run Setup under a different profile
If the profile under which you are logged on is damaged (corrupted), you may be able to run Setup under a different user profile. If you log on under a different profile and you are able to install Office, you may need to delete and recreate the problematic profile. Otherwise, you may encounter the same problem when you try to install Office when you are logged back on under that profile.

For more information about removing an existing user profile, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

156826 How to disable and delete user profiles

NOTE: If you have profiles turned on and a per-user Start menu, each user who has an existing profile on Windows 95 or Windows 98 must run Setup for Office. The only users who do not have to run Setup are those who do not have an existing profile on the computer; when they log on for the first time, the default user profile is copied into their profile. This default user profile includes all of the registry information and shortcuts necessary to start Office programs.

For more information about installing Office 2000 with user profiles turned on, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

302846 An "Application must be installed" error message occurs when you start an Office program

If this method does not resolve the problem, please try the steps outlined in method 3.

Method 3: turn off user profiles before running Setup

 * 1) On the Start menu, point to Settings, and click Control Panel. Double-click the Passwords control panel.
 * 2) Click the User Profiles tab. Click All users of this computer use the same preferences and desktop settings.
 * 3) Click OK. Restart the computer if prompted to do so.
 * 4) Install Office 2000. If the installation of Office is successful, you can turn on user profiles again.

NOTE: If you turn on user profiles again, you may encounter problems running the Office programs. For information about the additional steps that you must follow before you run Office 2000 programs after you turn on user profiles, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

234017 Office Program Shortcuts Are Missing

302846 An "Application must be installed" error message occurs when you start an Office program

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