The Installation of Office 97 fails on Windows XP SP2 with an error registering htmlmarq.ocx

Solution:

Open regedit and browse to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options
You should see htmlmarq.ocx and htmlmm.ocx separate keys. Rename them to something else, ie.  htmlmarq-tmp.ocx and htmlmm-tmp.ocx

You will now be able to install Office 97, including the HTML option, without incident.

DISCLAIMER: I don't know what this section of the registery does or why these files were apparently locked (intentionally or accidently), but this solution worked flawlessly for me. If you feel uncomfortable,  rename the keys back to the originals and office will work, but if you need to reinstall, you'll possibly have to rename them again.

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If that doesn't work, just must remove SP2, install Office97, do ALL the
updates (SR2 won't install if SP2 is installed) and then re-install
Office97.. sheesh!

Next time you do a clean install (if ever) remember to install and
update Office97 before installing SP2 and all will be well.