Can't uninstall OfficeXP 2003 Pro

[alegator]

I get the following error message:
"Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
Error 1402. Setup cannot open the registry key
UNKNOWN .mdb \ Persistent Handler. Verify that you have sufficient permissions to access the registry or contact your Information Technology department for assistance."
I tried repairing/reinstall Office without success. Any way to fix this? Thanks

[redwudz]

Try uninstalling it in 'Safe Mode?'.

[alegator]

I tried uninstalling in safe mode without success

[scorps]

Try installing again to repair the registry. Then uninstall.
Good luck.

[Bjs]

1:

Make sure you are logged in as administrator before removal .

Under normal xp setup , there is no admin account shown at login ... how to

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In Windows XP Pro, that Administrator account is not listed on the login screen, unless it's the only account on the machine. You can still log into it, though ... by rebooting into 'Safe Mode'. Press F8 when Windows begins to boot, and you'll be given a list of boot options, one of which is 'Safe Mode'. Select that, and the 'Administrator' account will appear on the login screen.

From here it's easy. Once you've signed in as 'Administrator':

* Right-click on My Computer
* Click on Manage
* Expand Local Users and Groups
* Click on Groups
* Double click on Administrators
* Click on Add
* Enter the account name on this machine that you want to assign administrative privileges to
* OK your way back out.

Now reboot your machine normally, and the account you selected should now have administrative full access.

If succesfull , and once any work has been finalized , and working properly , I strongly suggest you return the accounts to what was before ... so as to prevent any problems that can occur , due to the pc having multiple user's .

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2:

Another issue that microsoft has failed to notice is :

Updated installer installed after such events ... such as office pre-exists on the system prior to this update .

You may want to uninstall the installer update , restart pc , retry uninstalling the program from admin account .

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3:

You may have parts of microsoft office running in the background prior to trying to unistall it .

I suggest using hijackthis to scan all running process's in the packground .
All you do is check those only related to office , and let it fix these (delete's them) , it should also back them up .
Restart the pc , login to account with admin privilages , and try unistalling it now .

Also remember to disable antivirus program durring the unstall , as they can cause uninstall failure's .

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4:

It has been suggested to edit the registry to remove the known error call ... as it come's from information being read from the registry ... this information may be incorrect , file non-existent , pointing to wrong location .

Good old ms ... they drive me nutts with their rubbish ... but registry editing is safe if you do backups first .

A: What was error reported ... related too ?
B: Search for this on hard drive ... if it was a file ... if found or not , we confirm registry information

The registry is made up of 5 main groups ... click each group to highlight them , and file , export ... export each as seperate reg backups .... these are incase you goof up ... and to save yourself .

You need to search each of these main groups :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
HKEY_USERS (contains multiple changes)

Head to software in each .
Locate office ... and search for value that indicates that mdb .
Delete this key .

This is why you have backups of the registry ... just incase .

Search in those other areas's listed above for this same problem value and deal with in the same manner .

Close registry editor , and reboot the pc , and relogin under account with admin privilages , and retry uninstall .

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5:

System restore point , return system to prior office install .

Warning : Doing this will effect all programs installed after that restore point ... you will need to unistall these programs and reinstall them again as the exe's are nuked ... nice goof from ms .

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6:

Read : http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=295823

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7: Not for newbies ...

As a last resort without a clean reinstall .

It is possible to kill all running office background service's first .
Followed by removal of all office related registry key's .
Followed by the deletion of the office program folder , and under each user account .
And kill off the system restore points and reset a brand new one from this point .

I suggest using a tool to create a backup image of the system prior to pulling this stunt incase things fail ... you can reinstall from the image file rather than having to completely reinstall the os from scratch incase you screw up .

Not ... This information come's from one "so called" technical site , and I cannot suggest strongly enough , not to proceed with this method ... as it may leave registry value's and updated dll's , exe's , and more within the windows dirrectory that may require specific system call's ... that have been left behind in the process .

Doing so is a great way to cause irritating system crash's / lockup's .

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It's all technical ... but persistence pay's off .

[alegator]

Well, after everything suggested failed (removing in safe mode, reinstalling/repairing office and then uninstalling) I finally solved the issue by modifying a single registry line. This is what I did:
1) Run regedit
2) Search for the key "mdb" which is associated with Access
3) Once found, I changed the permissions from "partial" to Full
4) Tried uninstalling again and voila! , Office 2003 Pro finally gone!!

THANKS everyone for their suggestions.