Microsoft KB Archive/938815

= How to enable or to disable the instantiation point of a specific COM category in an Office 2003 Service Pack 3 program =

Article ID: 938815

Article Last Modified on 9/18/2007

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APPLIES TO

 Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3, when used with:  Microsoft Office Excel 2003

 Microsoft Office Word 2003

 Microsoft Office Web Components

 Microsoft Office Access 2003</li></ul> </li></ul>

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Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure that you 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

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INTRODUCTION
This article introduces a new feature in Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3). This feature lets administrators and users set registry keys in order to enable or to disable the instantiation point of a specific COM category in an Office 2003 SP3 program. For example, you can use this feature in Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Web Components, or Microsoft Office Excel.

Note This feature exists only in Office 2003 SP3.

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MORE INFORMATION
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 the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

Enable or disable the new feature
By default, this new feature is disabled in Office 2003 SP3. To enable this feature, the following registry key can be set in the domain policy:

Value Name ComCatCheck

Value Type REG_DWORD

Default Value None

If this key is not set, users can set the following equivalent key for Office 2003:

Value Name ComCatCheck

Value Type REG_DWORD

Default Value 0

Note The default value of 0 means that the feature is disabled. The default value of 1 means that the feature is enabled.

Four categories are currently defined. For each category in Office 2003, there is a core domain policy category key as follows:

If these keys are not set, users can set the following equivalent keys for Office 2003:

The respective category IDs for these four categories are defined in the following table.

CheckType registry entry and CheckCatID registry entry
You can set the following registry entries in each category key.

The  registry entry can be set to determine whether to use the Allow list or to use the Deny list.

Value Name CheckType

Value Type REG_DWORD

Default Value 0

A value of 0 means that the deny list will be used. A value of 1 means that the Allow list will be used.

Note If you set the value of the  registry entry to 1 for a category and if you do not specify an Allow list, all controls in that category will be disabled. If you set the value of the  registry entry to 0 for a category and if you do not specify a deny list, all controls in that category will be enabled. These guidelines are true unless the  registry entry is set and is not present.

The  registry entry can be set to determine whether the category of the COM component must be checked.

Value Name CheckCatID

Value Type REG_DWORD

Default Value 0

A value of 0 ignores the COM Category of the component. A value of 1 allows for COM components only in the specified category.

Allow lists
The Allow lists for four categories reside in the following locations:

Deny lists
The Deny lists for four categories reside in the following locations:

You can add a class identifier (CLSID) to the Allow list or to the Deny list. For example, to add CLSID {8BD21D40-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3} to the CATID_ExcelCreateRTD Allow list, you can create the following registry key:

You can add a CLSID to a specific category. For example, to add CLSID {8BD21D40-EC42-11CE-9E0D-00AA006002F3} to the CATID_ExcelCreateRTD category, you can create the following registry key:

Note The respective category ID for the CATID_ExcelCreateRTD category is {8F3844F5-0AF6-45C6-99C9-04BF54F620DA}.

For more information about implemented categories, visit the following Microsoft Web sites:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682451.aspx

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms692674.aspx

When you add a CLSID to a specific category for 32-bit applications on a 64-bit platform, you can use the following registry key:

For more information about how to use the Group Policy snap-in to specify policy settings for groups of users and for groups of computers, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/directory/activedirectory/stepbystep/gpfeat.mspx

Keywords: kbhowto kbinfo kbexpertiseinter KB938815

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