Office 2010 Install Error 1402 Setup Cannot Open Registry Key

Fix Office 2010 Install Error 1402 Setup Cannot Open Registry Key

By Nakodari | Published: February 7, 2010

Deleting Grooveex.dll was one of the two problems I encountered recently during Office 2010 re-installation in Windows 7. This post will focus on the Install Error 1402 where Office 2010 setup cannot open the registry key named Unknown/Component/[Random Numbers]. Fixing this problem requires a cup of coffee and patience.

This error is only shown when registry keys do not have Administrator permission. But you are logged in as Administrator, right? As it happens some setup can mess up the registry permissions and Office 2010 installer is no exception.

Entering the following line in Command Prompt will fix the problem for most people,

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

but it didn’t work for me. If it doesn’t work for you as well, follow the second method below.

Download SubInAcl, a command line tool from Microsoft that enables administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys services, etc. It will install to Program Files folder, copy SUBINACL.EXE file to /Windows/System 32 folder.

Now create a new notepad and paste the following code in it;

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /setowner=administrators

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /setowner=administrators

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /setowner=administrators

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

cls

Exit

Rename the notepad to reset and change the extension to cmd, the complete name will become “reset.cmd” as shown in the screenshot below. Run this file as administrator.

reset cmd

The process will now take several minutes, do NOT close the Window what may come. Once the process is complete, the command line window will automatically close and you can then install Office 2010 successfully.

reset registry

via Yuri’s Technology Blog & DSL Report

Update: Mike in the comments below has shared a method that worked for him and many others, the method is as follows:

I was able to get the install working with Win7 64 bit. When you get the error: “setup cannot open the registry key named” The key that follows is what you want to look for in the registry. Once you find the key (mine was in hklm\software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components), you will notice that there are subkeys underneath that you don’t have any permission to. First, right-click the top key (one in error message) and click permissions. Next click advanced and then the owner tab. Make sure adminsitrators is listed as an owner and then click the check box “Replace owner on subcontainers…”. When you press OK, you will get errors but that’s OK. Now check “Full Control” on the permisions for the administrators group and then click the Advanced button again. Then check the “Replace all child object permissions…”. Click OK. Again, you might get errors but that’s OK. You’ll notice you have permissions to the subkeys now.
Unfortunately, there is more than one key effected. If you run setup again, you get an error on another key. I ended up looking for any key in the components area that had the arrow showing they could be expanded. Any one of those I didn’t have permission to, I changed like above. I think there were about 7 or 8 more. Eventually, the install worked and now I’m up and running. Long process but it did work for me.