Windows 7: OpenOffice No Longer Opens in Windows 7

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium. OpenOffice suddenly stopped working on one of our computers (HP notebook). The last known time it worked was July 7 when we created a .xls file with it.

Trying to open any of the OO applications results in an image of a circle spinning appears momentarily (0 to 1 second) but the program does not start. This happens when clicking on a link on the desktop or Start Menu as well as double-clicking an application file the Program Files (x86) directory or double-clicking on associated files (.doc, .odt, ...). I have uninstalled and reinstalled versions 3.3 and 3.4 several times. The suite's quickstarter.exe is in my Startup folder and appears in MSCONFIG as a Startup item but is not running in Task Manager upon start up.



When I boot into Safe Mode, the OO applications run perfectly. I have run MS Security Essentials scans in regular and Safe Mode as well as Comodo Anti-Virus scans. Googling and posting on an OpenOffice forum indicated several things to try, none of which panned out:

I installed Java 6.33 32-bit version.
DocuShare is not running or installed.
I turned off Skype.
I turned off all firewalls and anti-malware programs and services.
I stopped and disabled non-critical services (only 26 processes were running in Task Manager).
I have uninstalled OO, rebooted, reinstalled, rebooted after each of these attempts with the same results.

When I only had 26 processes running, opening an OO program caused the dllhost process to appear in Task Manager for several seconds. I have not noticed that when all services are activated. In fact, I specifically noticed it not happening.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome aboard curtiscool

Try installing the latest version; or if it is already the latest one, uninstall it and reinstall again.

Maybe somehow the Oo installation got corrupted.

If you do decide to reinstall do the uninstall first using Revo Uninstaller to clear out unwanted entries in the registry. The link is in my signature.

I still have not figured this out. No amount of uninstalling or re-installing seem to have an effect.

Are there any tools to do something like this (or simulate it):

Boot into Safe Mode. As I understand it, this only loads minimal drivers and starts minimal services/processes. Then, manually, start adding drivers/programs/services from the normal boot one-at-a-time, checking to see if OO will no longer run, to see what is causing the issue?