Some SoftGrid enabled Office Applications may not run if McAfee VirusScan 8.5i is installed

Here's an issue we've seen a couple times recently so I thought I'd send a heads up just in case any of you run into it:

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Symptoms: After installing VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i some SoftGrid client actions seems to be blocked. For example, if you try to start Microsoft Word 2003 /2007 or another Office Application via SoftGrid you may get the following error:

"The operation system is not presently configured to run this application."

Furthermore you may see some Event log entries like:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 59
Description: Generate Activation Context failed for C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11\MSO.DLL. Reference error message: The operation completed successfully.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 59
Description: Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls. Reference error message: The system cannot find the path specified.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 59
Description: Generate Activation Context failed for C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\MICROS~1\OFFICE11\mso.dll. Reference error message: The operation completed successfully.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: SideBySide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 59
Description: Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls. Reference error message: The system cannot find the path specified

Cause: Due to the BOP feature (Buffer Overflow Protection) in McAfee VirusScan, SoftGrid may be prevented from hooking the DLL call to point Office Applications to the Q Drive.

Resolution: There are three possible solutions:

1 - Create an empty directory for the application on the affected system(s).
Launch Windows Explorer.
Navigate to C:\program files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\
Create an empty instance of the virtual directory containing the Microsoft Office applications.

Example: c:\program files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Office 11 for Office 2003 or \Office12 for Office 2007

2 - Install VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) 8.5i without Buffer Overflow Protection (BOP) enabled.

3 - Add the name of the Microsoft Office application to the list of excluded processes in the Buffer Overflow Protection feature.
Example: winword.exe

NOTE: McAfee does not recommend excluding executables unless there is no other option and you are aware of the potential risks.

Note: Microsoft recommends the first workaround above.

Hope this helps!

Sebastian Gernert | SoftGrid Support Specialist