I have got Windows Vista Home Premium (original, liscenced)installed on my computer, everytime I try to install Microsoft Office (2003 0r 2007) on it, the error message I get is that 'Microsoft Office Bootstrapper has stopped working'. I am getting very frustrated. I even reinstalled my OS afresh but to no avail. Can anyone please help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

Zill.

I am having this same issue "Microsoft Setup Bootstrapper has stopped working" error, and I see this only when trying to uninstall or install MS Office. Also, Windows Explorer keeps restarting.

Finally, as I was not abl to find any solution, I had to use restore discs and got the machine back to factory defaults.
As this problem might occur again, anybody please post a reply if you know something might work; or if there is a solution to fix this issue.

I'm experiencing the same problem, when trying to installed MSDN Office 2007 on Vista Ultimate x64 MSDN for test purposes. Also got the same problem when trying to install Outlook on its own. The MSDN office image is "en_office_enterprise_2007_DVD_VL_X12-19574".

Why is this occuring?

I had the same problem on fully licensed, fresh install. We purchased a new Dell Studio XPS 16 for one of our VP's. I wiped the laptop and installed a fresh copy of Vista Ultimate 32-bit. Everything installed fine until I got to the MS Office 2007 Std Ed installation, kept getting the bootstrap error. I made an ISO of the MS Office installation. Then, using the free Virtual Clone Drive from Elaborate Byes (http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html), I mounted the virtual image and was able to successfully install MS Office.

The problem seems to stem from the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in Vista and the way the MS Office setup.exe was using the systems memory. Also, when I tried to installed it from my licensed MSDN Office 2007 Std installation folder, I kept getting an UAC prompt stating "An unidentified program wants access to your computer". After converting it to an ISO and mounting the ISO image, I never got any UAC prompt, it showed a digitally signed and was able to install it successfully.