Installed Word on the server but cannot find it to set permissions in Component Services

Question

I was looking at this problem on SO; System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Retrieving the COM class factory for Word Interop fails with error 80070005.

We had word installed in the test server in order to get the Word Interop to work on it. That lead to this new bug, and I cannot apply the fix recommended by I cannot find Microsoft Word on the Componenet Services DCOM Config. So how can I fix this?

Answer 1

Using the ERR tool we see the error: 80070005 is an Access Denied, so you either do not have permissions or its by-design.

 for hex 0x80070005 / decimal -2147024891 :
  COR_E_UNAUTHORIZEDACCESS                                      corerror.h     
 MessageText: 
 Access is denied.
  DIERR_OTHERAPPHASPRIO                                         dinput.h       
  DIERR_READONLY                                                dinput.h       
  DIERR_HANDLEEXISTS                                            dinput.h       
  DSERR_ACCESSDENIED                                            dsound.h       
  ecAccessDenied                                                ec.h           
  ecPropSecurityViolation                                       ec.h           
  MAPI_E_NO_ACCESS                                              mapicode.h     
  STIERR_READONLY                                               stierr.h       
  STIERR_NOTINITIALIZED                                         stierr.h       
  E_ACCESSDENIED                                                winerror.h     
 General access denied error
 11 matches found for "0x80070005"

I mention by-design because of all the problems documented in this KB article: Considerations for server-side Automation of Office.

Installing Office on Server OS's leads to all sorts of problems. For VSTO development I install TFS on Win7 for automated builds to avoid server-side interop problems.

Dont use a Server OS for Office automation, as per the KB article its not supported, use Win7!

Microsoft strongly recommends a number of alternatives that do not require Office to be installed server-side, and that can perform most common tasks more efficiently and more quickly than Automation. Before you involve Office as a server-side component in your project, consider alternatives.