Live Meeting Web Access - Still No Luck
Here's another exciting update in my attempts to test Microsoft Live Meeting 2007 and its Meeting Web Access (MWA) mode. As a quick recap, this is the mode that presenters and attendees can use if they are not on Windows machines or if they don't want to download the 15MB installation file and install the local client application on their computer.
To upload a PowerPoint into the meeting room, the software wants to load an ActiveX control. On my test machine (Windows XP Professional with SP2), the file uploader refuses to install, leaving me unable to upload and display a slide presentation in my meeting.
I have now spent many hours (yes, I am being literal) on the phone with various Microsoft technical support personnel. I started with the Live Meeting support team, who said their application doesn't seem to be at fault (strange, because I can load every other ActiveX control I can find for testing).
They turned me over to the XP support team, thinking that my user profile might be corrupted so that the controller can't write to my personal temp space. After a lot of testing and profile management, we concluded that everything was fine there.
Next I got bounced to the Internet Explorer team, who ended up having me uninstall everything that has ever been associated with IE, delete all cached and stored objects, reset all settings to the factory default, and even try it while running in Windows Safe Mode.
Through all of this, Live Meeting refuses to install its uploader control. Now the tech rep wants me to physically uninstall my antivirus software (instead of simply disabling it). I'm a little confused by this, as the antivirus software isn't even enabled in Safe Mode, so I don't see how it can have any effect. But as Sherlock Holmes once said, "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Eventually I'm afraid they are going to tell me to install Vista to fix the problem, at which point I'll simply give up the testing.
For fairness' sake, I want to remind my audience that I have another computer where the control installs without a problem. So it is a local conflict. It's just annoying that none of us can figure out what it might be!
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