OFF97: Error Message "Vbe.dll Was Unable to Register Itself"

ID: Q162627

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
Microsoft Office 97 for Windows, Service Release 1 (SR-1)
Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
Microsoft Access 97
Microsoft PowerPoint 97 For Windows
Microsoft Project 98 for Windows

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

When you run Setup, you may receive one or both of the following error messages after all files have been copied to the hard disk on your computer.

VBA332.dll error The Visual Basic Environment could not be initialized. Please run Setup to install it correctly.

Microsoft <program> Setup
vbe.dll was unable to register itself in the system registry.

-and/or-

Microsoft Visual Basic
Unexpected critical error: can't start program

When you click OK, you receive the following error message

Microsoft <program> Setup was not completed successfully.

where <program> is the program you are trying to install.

NOTE: You may also receive this error message if you click Tools on the menu bar and Setup stops responding.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true for any of the following cases:

Case 1

You perform a Run From CD or Run From Network installation of Microsoft Office 97 on your computer.

-and-
You remove Microsoft Office 97 from your computer by running the Setup program in maintenance mode and clicking Remove All.

-and-
You attempt to perform a Typical or Custom installation of Microsoft Office 97 on your computer.

Case 2

You install one of the programs listed at the beginning of this article from an administrative installation point on a network server and install the shared components so that they run from the network server.

-and-
You install a second program listed at the beginning of this article.

NOTE: When the shared .dll files are being registered in the Microsoft Windows registry, the location of the shared files cannot be found.

Case 3

You perform a Run From Network installation of Microsoft Office 97 on your computer. During installation, you choose to keep shared files on the server.

-and-
You then perform a Run From Network installation of Microsoft Office 97 SR-1 on your computer. During installation, you choose to store shared files on your local hard disk drive.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use any of the following five methods.

Method 1

Modify the path to point to the shared programs, and then run Setup again.

NOTE: This modification is required only while you are running Setup. You can remove the modification to the path statement after you successfully install the program.

Under Microsoft Windows NT

If you are running Microsoft Windows NT, follow these steps:

First, use Windows Explorer to map a network drive to the location of the shared programs on the server. For example, map drive F to the following location
\\<server name>\<share name>
where <server name> is the name of the server and <share name> is the name of the share in which the shared programs are stored.

On the Start menu, point to Settings and click Control Panel.

Double-click the System icon.

Click the Environment tab.

In the System Variables box, select the Path variable.

At the bottom of the window, click after the Value statement for the path.

Type a semicolon (;), and then type the path to the location to the shared programs on the network.

For example, type the following:

f:\msapps\os\system

Click Set.

Click OK, and then run Setup for the program you want to install.

Under Microsoft Windows 95

If you are running Microsoft Windows 95, follow these steps:

On the Start menu, click Run. Type sysedit in the Open box.

In the Autoexec.bat window, find the "PATH=" statement.

Type a semicolon (;), and then type the path to the location of shared programs on the network.

For example, type the following
\\<servername>\msoffice\msapps\os\system

where <servername> is the name of the server.

On the File menu, click Save.

On the File menu, click Exit.

Restart the computer.

Run Setup for the program you want to install.

Method 2

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To prevent this problem from occurring, follow these steps:

On the Start menu, click Run. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

In the Registry window, click the plus sign (+) to the left of the following keys, in order:
```
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
      SOFTWARE
      Microsoft
      Shared Tools 
```
Then, click the yellow folder to the left of "Vba332.dll". The text in the status bar should be the following:


      My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\ 
      Vba332.dll

On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click Yes to delete the key.

On the Registry menu, click Exit.

Run the Setup program.

If the error message appears again, follow these steps:

Using Windows Explorer, manually create the following folders on your hard disk (usually, drive C):
```
      Program Files\Common Files
      Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared
      Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA 
```
NOTE: The Program Files folder should already exist on your hard disk. If it does not, create it before you create the folders listed in this step.

Copy the following files from the OS\System folder on your Microsoft Office 97 compact disc:
```
      Vba332.dll     (file size 1,596,688 bytes, version 3.0.6908, 11/96)
      Vbe.dll        (file size 745,232 bytes, 11/96) 
```
Paste the files in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VBA folder on your hard disk.

In the Windows Explorer, go to the Windows\System folder on your hard disk.

If the file Oleaut32.dll is present, select it. Right-click the file, and click Rename on the shortcut menu. Type Oleaut32.old and press ENTER.

If the Ole32.dll file is present, select it. Right-click the file, and click Rename on the shortcut menu. Type Ole32.old and press ENTER.

Copy the following file from the OS\System folder on your Microsoft Office 97 compact disc:
```
      Oleaut32.dll   (file size 491,792 bytes, version 2.20.4054,
                     11/96) 
```
Paste the file in the Windows\System folder on your hard disk.

Copy the following file from the Office\WMS\Common folder on your Microsoft Office 97 compact disc:
```
      Ole32.dll      (file size 558,704 bytes, version 2.1, 11/96) 
```
Paste the file in the Windows\System folder on your hard disk.

NOTE: If any of the four files mentioned in steps 2-5 are in use, you may receive an error message when you attempt to copy them to your hard disk. If this occurs, you may need to restart your computer in MS-DOS mode, copy the files to your hard disk, and then restart your computer again.

Run Microsoft Office 97 Setup.

NOTE: After replacing the old copies of Oleaut32.dll and Ole32.dll with copies from the Microsoft Office 97 compact disc and running Microsoft Office 97 Setup, other programs that use these files may not work correctly. In this event, you may need to reinstall the other programs. Or, you may be able to rename the .old files in the Windows\System folder to their original file names.

Method 3

In some cases, you may be able to correct this problem by using the Windows Explorer to copy the file Vbeext1.olb into the following folder:


   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Vba

If this folder does not exist on your hard disk drive, manually create it using the Windows Explorer.

You can find Vbeext1.olb in the OS\System folder of your administrative installation of Microsoft Office 97, or in the OS\System folder of your Microsoft Office 97 compact disc.

After you have copied the Vbeext1.olb file into the Vba folder, re-run Microsoft Office 97 Setup.

Method 4

If the following folder exists on your hard disk drive


   C:\Windows\Temp\Vbe

use the Windows Explorer to delete or rename the folder. Then, re-run Microsoft Office 97 Setup.

Method 5

If none of the above solutions resolve the problem, try following the steps in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q158658 OFF97: How to Completely Remove Microsoft Office 97

Note that a utility that automates the process of removing Office 97 is available. The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Software Library:

Eraser97.exe

For more information about downloading files from the Microsoft Software Library, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q119591 How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

The FTP location is ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: 8.00 97 OFF97 Vbe sr-1 sr1 prj98


Keywords          : kberrmsg kbusage kbdta offwinsetup offlocal 
Version           : WINDOWS:97,98
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: July 12, 1999