How to prevent the "Welcome to the 2007 Microsoft Office system" dialog box from opening when a 2007 Office suite is started for the first time

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929767

INTRODUCTION

This step-by-step article describes how to change the registry so that the Welcome to the 2007 Microsoft Office system dialog box does not open when a 2007 Microsoft Office suite is started for the first time.

MORE INFORMATION

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps. 1. Click Start, type Regedit, in the Start Search box, and then click regedit in the Programs list.

2. Expand the following subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General

3. Right-click General, point to New, and then click Dword (32-bit) Value.

4. Type ShownOptIn, and then press ENTER to name the new entry.

5. Right-click ShownOptIn, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type 00000001, and then click OK.

7. Close Registry Editor.

Alternatively, you can use a policy setting in the following subkey to make this change:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General

For more information about how to use policies with 2007 Office suites, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

924617 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924617/) How administrators can use Office policy templates together with the Group Policy settings of Windows

Note If this policy setting is later removed, the Welcome to the 2007 Microsoft Office system dialog box opens the next time that the 2007 Microsoft Office suites are started.

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We created a custom policy for this:

CLASS USER

CATEGORY !!Header

CATEGORY !!OptInHeader

CATEGORY !!OptInContent

POLICY !!PolicyOptIn

KEYNAME "Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General"

EXPLAIN !!ExplainOptIn

VALUENAME "ShownOptIn"

VALUEON NUMERIC 1

VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0

END POLICY

END CATEGORY

END CATEGORY

END CATEGORY

[strings]

Header= "Custom Policies"

OptInHeader="Microsoft Office 2007"

OptInContent="Welcome screen"

PolicyOptIn="Disable 'Welcome to the 2007 Microsoft Office system' screen"

ExplainOptIn="Please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929767\n\nThis setting, when enabled, will disable the 'Welcome to the 2007 Microsoft Office system' on the first-run of Office 2007.\n\nEnabling this setting will set the following key:\n\n[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General]\n"ShownOptIn"=dword:00000001 "