Unable to run office programs as a non-administrator on a Windows Terminal Server
Request Description:
The system has installed Office 2007 Small Business Edition on a Windows Terminal Server. When non-admin users attempt to launch Office applications in local and/or remote sessions, the following errors occur:
Word: “MS Office Word needs VBA macro language support to complete this action. An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please contact your system administrator.”
Outlook & Excel: “This feature is not available. For more information, contact your system administrator”.
Explanation:
This issue is similar to those in the past which have involved the installation of volume license versions of Office 2007, Windows Terminal Server, and retail (non-volume license) Office 2007 product/CD keys.
We confirmed that the Office 2007 product/CD key that the system has now is of the volume license type, but after performing the following steps and reinstalling with this key, the issues no longer occur:
- Ensure that all Office applications on the Terminal Server are closed, and remote users are disconnected.
- Uninstall Office 2007 via the Control Panel.
- "Cleaned up" remaining files and folders using the OffScrub07.vbs script (similar to the “FixIt” solution in KB971179)
- Rename the copy of opa12.dat (.old), located in the %PROGRAMDATA% \Microsoft\OFFICE\DATA folder. This file is related to licensing and activation in Office 2007.
- Use regedit to navigate to the following reg key and add “.old” to the Office 2007 Small Business Edition (SBE) GUID: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration\
- Reset the default file, folder, and registry permissions using the “FixIt” solution in KB313222.
Thoughts are that the cause of this issue was due the presence of files and/or registry keys related to Office 2007 licensing, which were tied to retail, trial, or OEM versions of Office 2007. Removing Office 2007 and related files/reg keys, then reinstalling with a known volume license product key for Office 2007 resolved the issue.
More Information
How do I uninstall the 2007 Office suites if I cannot uninstall it by using the "Add or Remove Programs" feature?
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/971179
Deploy the 2007 Office system on a Terminal Services-enabled computer
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179055.aspx