Long response to my own post... but just found this on MS website *Snap*
OFF: RegClean Finds Registry Errors After You Install Office
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Office XP (Setup)
Microsoft Office 2000 (Setup)
SYMPTOMS
When you run the RegClean utility after installing one of the products listed at the beginning of this article, you may experience one of the following symptoms:
RegClean finds errors in the System Registry, and you receive the option to Fix Errors in RegClean.
When you install an Office program whose installation state is Installed on First Use and then double-click a document that is associated with that program, the Office program may not start. Instead, the Open With dialog box appears, and Office program is not listed.
CAUSE
RegClean is not compatible with the products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem occurs for any Windows Installer product on which the program's installation state is set to Installed on First Use.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, try the following methods in the order in which they appear.
Method 1: Undo the Registry Changes from RegClean
To undo changes made by RegClean, locate and double-click the Undo.reg file. This restores the registry entries that were removed.
RegClean creates a file in the following format:
Undo computer yyyymmdd hhmmss.reg
where computer is the computer name, yyyymmdd is the date that RegClean made the registry changes, and hhmmss is the time that RegClean made the registry changes.
Method 2: Demand Install the Office Program
If this problem occurs when you double-click a document from Windows Explorer, and the document should be associated with an Office Program whose installation state is Installed on First Use, follow these steps:
Click Start and then click Programs.
On the Programs menu, click the shortcut for the Office program that you want to start (for example, Microsoft Word).
The Office program will be installed, and you can then double-click the associated document from Windows Explorer.
Method 3: Remove and Reinstall Office
You may need to remove and reinstall Office to resolve the issue. To do this, follow these steps:
In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
In the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box, select the Office entry (for example, select Microsoft Office XP Professional).
If your operating system is Microsoft Windows 2000, click Remove.
If your operating system is Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), follow these steps:
Click Add/Remove
In the Maintenance Mode Options dialog box, click Uninstall Office.
Click Next.
Click Yes to confirm the uninstall.
When Office is removed, insert your Office CD-ROM, and then run Setup to reinstall Office.
MORE INFORMATION
The RegClean utility is no longer supported and has been removed from all Microsoft download sites.