sidebyside errors in event log

Hi,

ever since I got this Vista laptop the event log has had numerous and
persistent errors whose source is SideBySide, such as

Activation context generation failed for
"C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\MICROS~1\SMARTT~1\FPERSON.DLL". Dependent Assembly
Microsoft.VC80.MFC,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",versio n="8.0.50608.0"
could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

(I say such as because the dll above is any of the dlls in C:\Program
Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Smart Tag, but I also get errors such as

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files\Common
Files\InstallShield\UpdateService\ISUSPM.exe.Manifest".Error in manifest or
policy file "C:\Program Files\Common
Files\InstallShield\UpdateService\ISUSPM.exe.Manifest" on line 0. Invalid Xml
syntax and sometimes for other apps too...)

What is SideBySide, what's going on and can the problem be resolved?

TIA

Julian

<http://eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=33&eventno=5021&source=SideBySide&phase=1>

It looks like a runtime package is missing, if that's the case you just
need to follow the link in the page you posted which goes to here.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Briefly some program is trying to run and cannot find this package,
maybe it's not installed or maybe the programmer made an error and the
package is there but cannot be found.

I would first make sure you go to the update site and check for any
updates because this might be related to word or similar and smart tags.
If it is a programmer error they may have fixed it. You should go to
the right place is Office is installed...

Do NOT do anything drastic as this is probably not going to do any
damage, check for updates first and see if you can find more info on
fperson.dll by searching.

Sorry for the delay in acknowledging the assistance - for several days I
couldn't post to the site... I think it was a site problem but it's gone away
now anyway...

Yes, that all makes sense - I've downloaded the VB distributable and we'll
see what happens.

Thanks

Julian