Article ID: 217605 - Last Review: January 24, 2007 - Revision: 1.4

You receive a "The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting down" error message when you are prompted to restart Windows after you run Office 2000 programs for the first time

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This article was previously published under Q217605

For a Microsoft Office XP version of this article, see 290137 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290137/ ) .

SYMPTOMS

When you start one of the Microsoft Office 2000 programs for the first time, Windows Installer may start, and you are prompted to restart your computer. When you click Yes, an error message similar to the following is briefly displayed:

The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting down.

Note, you are not prompted to dismiss the error message. It quickly disappears right before Windows restarts.

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CAUSE

This error message occurs when all of the following conditions are true:

You are using Windows NT 4.0. -and-
You have the Windows Desktop Update installed along with Internet Explorer 4.01 and SP1 (or higher) for Internet Explorer 4.01. -and-
A member of the Administrators group advertised Office 2000 by running Setup with the /j switch. -and-
You click one of the Office 2000 shortcuts on the Programs menu for the first time.

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