com makepy problems

[d. savitsky]

please accept my apologies if this has been answered somewhere.  i was
unable to find much that i understood.
i am having trouble with the com makepy utility. on 3 different computers
(win2k, NT 4, win98) when i first installed python and pythonwin the utility
worked.  now, when i select it from the menu i get the error (from the NT 4
machine)

----------------------
Failed to execute command:
from win32com.client import makepy;makepy.main()
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\Pythonwin\pywin\framework\toolmenu.py", line
103, in HandleToolCommand
    exec "%s\n" % pyCmd
  File "<string>", line 1, in ?
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\win32com\client\makepy.py", line 305, in
main
    rc = selecttlb.SelectTlb()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\win32com\client\selecttlb.py", line 107, in
SelectTlb
    items = EnumTlbs(excludeFlags)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\win32com\client\selecttlb.py", line 68, in
EnumTlbs
    key2 = win32api.RegOpenKey(win32con.HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, "Typelib\\%s" %
(iid))
api_error: (5, 'RegOpenKeyEx', 'Access is denied.')
---------------------

i am logged in as the admin.  pythonwin is 132.  ie is 5.5. nothing else
seems to be having any problems (including using objects set up earlier with
makepy).
i have tried the obvious of reinstalling/upgrading (from 129 in 2 cases).
upgrading solved this once on a different computer, but not on any of these.
thanks for any suggestions.
doug