Making MS Office 2007 recognize the UX as a Tablet PC under Vista

Microsoft Office 2007 doesn't recognize the UX as a Tablet PC and, thus, won't enable Inking operations. Here's how to fix it:

Microsoft Office 2007 consults two registry DWORDS to determine if the programs are running on a Table PC:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Tablet PC\isTabletPC and
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Tablet PC\DeviceType

isTablePC needs to be set to 1 and DeviceType needs to be set to &H80000001

Obviously, you can use regedit to do this, but, every time you re-boot the machine, something in the operating system resets both of these values to 0. The solution is to create the following Visual Basic script and place it in your StartUp program folder in the Start Menu. Here's the script:

' VBScript - Frank J. Garcia - www.ultramobilepc-tips.com
'

Dim objShell, RegLocate, RegLocate1
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

On Error Resume Next
RegLocate = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Tablet PC\isTabletPC"

objShell.RegWrite RegLocate,"1","REG_DWORD"

RegLocate = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Tablet PC\DeviceKind"

objShell.RegWrite RegLocate,&H80000001,"REG_DWORD"

WScript.Quit

(Thanks to Frank Garcia aka CTitanic for this script.)

Here's an easy way to create the script:

• Right-click on empty space on your desktop and select New --> Text Document
  
• Rename the file to istablet.vbs. (Be sure to edit the .txt out.) You'll get a warning about changing the "filename extension." Say "Yes" to do so.
• Right-click on istablet.vbs and select "Edit"
  
• Notepad will pop up. Copy and paste the script contents from above into the file and save it. Now you have the working script file on your desktop.
• Right-click on the Start icon and select Open all Users from the menu. Double-click on the Programs icon. Double-click on the Startup icon. Then drag and drop istablet.vbs into the window.
  
  istable.vbs will be added to your Startup programs.

One final thing needs to be done, if you're running Vista. You need to make sure istablet.vbs has "permission" to write the values to the registry.

• Run regedit.exe (You can find it in the C:/Windows folder or type "regedit" into the Run... applet if you've enabled it.)
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Tablet PC
  (If it doesn't exist, create a new key under Windows named Tablet PC --
  note the space in the name.)
• Right-click on the Tablet PC key and select Permissons
  
• Click on the Advanced button and then the Owner tab. Change the owner to yourself if it is set to anyone else. Then click OK.
• In the Permissions dialog, set it so "Everyone" has full control for Tablet PC
  
• Click OK and close out regedit. Re-boot.
• Call up regedit again, just to be sure. You should see
  

Now when you use Word and click on the Review tab, you'll see the Start Inking command right where it should be.