I had a problem with the tinymce visual editor as well. The edit options were not showing in the editor and there was not an “enable visual editor” option under the user profile. It turns out that in Win 2003, maybe other versions as well, some files are “blocked” when extracting out of a zip file.
The problem was that the js files were not being extracted and copied to any WordPress directory – though the other files were. The web site “worked” for the most part but a few things like the editor didn’t.
I solved this problem by:
1. Uncheck the “block” properties for the zip file; it is on the properties for that file (right-click, properties). You should see a message like “Windows has blocked access to these files to protect your computer” under properties.
2. After unblocking the files delete the original temp directory where the files were extracted to originally and then re-extract the files.
3. Next, re-install all the WordPress directories/files
Now, the editor worked.
Win 2003, IIS 6, PHP 5.2.5
