Hey - thanks to all you who offered help. The Process Monitor would not download, but I already had Process Explorer from Rossinovich, so I opened it and tried another Install. It failed, so I went to the Process Explorer having no idea what I was doing or looking for. On a hunch I put the cursor on the graph and found the spike where Office tried to install. I found it as it flagged - immediately after InCD flagged !? So I decided to delete the entire Nero Suite, with InCD, because it never worked right with Vista. I then rebooted. With InCD gone Office installed perfectly! So, is InCD the true problem, or was it because it was in a package that doesn't totally work with Vista, therefore InCD in my case may have been corrupted in some way? Folks like you, much brighter in these matters than I am may have an idea. At least, it is something to remember for the next guy who runs into this problem. Again, thanks for all your help. as it put me onto the tool needed to get at the problem. I do admit, however, that my using the monitor successfully is a lot like the blind pig that falls face first into the mud and finds the acorn! Jon