In the course of troubleshooting the MSIPC rights management it may be beneficial to reset the client. The reset process removes the pertinent registry settings and files. This reset applies to the logged on user. Other users on the same machine are not reset.

The steps are as follows.

  1. Exit running Office applications.
  2. Delete existing registry entries.
  3. Clear existing licenses, GICs (RACs), and etc.
  4. Reproduce the issue.

NOTE: Feel free to export the DRM registry key before deleting it. Moving the entire MSIPC directory to another location may be done instead of deleting them.

Table of Contents

Delete the RMS registry settings for the user. 

  1. Open regedit.exe.
  2. Navigate to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\XXX\Common\DRM.
    XXX is the current Office version. 15.0 is Office 2013. There may be multiple versions listed (which is normal). Picking the highest is usually the correct one. 
  3. Delete the DefaultServer and DefaultServerURL values.

 

Clear the existing licenses, GICs (RACs), and etc. 

  1. Use one of the following methods to open the user MSIPC directory.
    1. Open a command prompt and enter the following commands.
      1. Cd %localappdata%
      2. Start . (the command is the word Start followed by a “period” and the enter key.
    2. In the “Search programs and files” dialog type %localappdata%
  2. In the AppData\Local directory navigate to the Microsoft directory.
  3. Delete the MSIPC directory.

 

 

Sample contents of the MSIPC directory for the curious.