TIF File association lost after every Office/Windows update

Hi,

I've had this problem since Office SP3 came out...

Basically, I want TIF files to be associated with MS Document Imaging.
Since MS Office SP3 came out, the file association for TIF files broke
on every one of my domain machines. This caused some major headaches -
you can imagine going through over 200 machines and re-associating TIF
files to the correct program (MSPVIEW). It has to be MSPVIEW as this
is the only program that can view multiple pages in a TIF (mspaint and
pic & fax viewer cant).

So finally got most of them and I thought great - job done.

No.

Now after every subsequent Windows or Office update, the TIF file
associations breaks again. They don't just change the program back to
MS Pic & Fax viewer, they completely remove the file association so
Windows hasnt got a clue what program to use to open a TIF file. This
is a really big problem.

Registry fixes are not an option for users, as we have their registry
locked down (obvious security measure). I can't even put a regfix in
the logon scripts, as these run on a per-user basis. Unfortunately the
fix has to be done manually.

My questions:

1) What is causing the associations to keep breaking and why?

2) Is there a fix for it that doesn't require administrative
privelages or registy editing to be enabled?

I am quite aware that this was an issue with the Office SP3 patch -
but this has already been installed on the domain machines.

Thanks for any help.