Nick White, Your problem is a common one and is a classic example of the one weakness with Office shrinker - You need to create you Shrunken install, not only on a clean windows setup, but also one that is exactly the same as the one that you will be using the install on. For example; i) You VM a completely clean XP machine from standard cd and run shrink, ii) You try to install you shrunken Office on an NLited xp, Sorry - probably will not work. Similarly, if you create on XP then try to install on Vista. I'm not saying it definately won't work - I'm sure someone will post saying theirs was OK but it's iffy. The way I work is: i) Create my windows install first - tweaked, NLited, runtime files etc, ii) Then I VM it and create my Office shrink. This will work 99% of the time - you can even (with some work) persuade it to install at T12/13 once the default user is created.