You may receive an error message when you try to run an application under a user account that is not a member of the Administrators group or of the Power Users group after you install Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 6

After you install Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 6 (SP6), you may receive an error message when you try to run an application like Microsoft Outlook Express or WordPad under a user account that is not a member of the Administrators group or of the Power Users group. When this issue occurs, you receive one of the following error messages:

Message 1 Message 2 Message 3

When you install Visual Studio 6.0 SP6, the file permissions of some system files are changed. For example, the file permissions on the Mfc42u.dll file and on the Atl.dll file are different from the file permissions that these files had before you installed Visual Studio 6.0 SP6.

The issue that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section occurs because the files permissions of the affected system files are limited to the Administrators group or the Power Users group after you install Visual Studio 6.0 SP6.

For example, when Outlook Express starts, the Startup process loads the Atl.dll file. And, when WordPad starts, the Startup process loads the Mfc42u.dll file. However, if you try to start Outlook Express or WordPad under an account that is not a member of the Administrators group or of the Power Users group, the application does not have the Read & Execute permission for the required system file.

To resolve this issue, grant the Read & Execute permission to the Users group for each affected system file. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In Microsoft Windows Explorer, locate the affected system file.
2. Right-click the file, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Security tab, and then click the Users group under Group or user names.
4. Under Permissions for Users, click to select the Allow check box for the Read & Execute permission.
5. Click Apply, and then click OK.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.