OFF97: Microsoft Office 97 Sounds Don't Work for all Users

ID: Q165983

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
Microsoft Access 97
Microsoft PowerPoint 97 For Windows
Microsoft Outlook 97

SYMPTOMS

When you start any of the programs that are listed at the beginning of this article, sound events within the programs do not work, even though the Microsoft Office 97 Sounds that are included in the ValuPack in Microsoft Office 97 are installed on the computer.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

You are using either of the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
Microsoft Windows 95 (with user profiles)

-and-

When the Microsoft Office 97 Sounds were installed, another user was logged on to the computer.

This problem occurs because the Setup program for Microsoft Office 97 Sounds creates registry keys for sound events in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key, which is user specific. Setup does not create this key under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key, which applies to all users. Because of this, the registry entries for the sound events are available only for the user who installs Microsoft Office 97 Sounds.

RESOLUTION

If Microsoft Office 97 Sounds is used by multiple users who log on to the computer, each person must install Microsoft Office 97 Sounds. Doing this dos not require additional hard disk space because the Setup program always copies the sound files to the same folder on the hard disk. When each person installs the sound files, the Setup program creates the appropriate keys in the registry so that each person can use the Microsoft Office 97 Sounds.

STATUS

This behavior is by design of the Microsoft Office 97 Sounds Setup program.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Office 97 Sounds is one of the components that is included in the Microsoft Office 97 ValuPack. When you install this component, Setup copies sound files to your hard disk and creates registry entries that refer to these sound files.

These registry entries establish certain events in the Microsoft Office 97 programs, such as Clear, Delete, Drag, and so on. When a specific event occurs, the sound that is associated with that event is played. You can choose what sounds are associated with each event by using the Sounds Control Panel icon.

If you open the Sounds Control Panel icon and do not see Microsoft Office in the list of events, you must install Microsoft Office 97 Sounds to use the sound events.

Additional query words: OFF97 sounds.exe XL97 WORD97 ACC97 PPT97


Keywords          : offvalpack 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 25, 1999