The uninstall appeared to have worked and I can no longer find any trace of the office 2007 beta on my system or in my registry. Apparently the Office 2007 Standard installer (legitimate) doesn't agree though and refuses to install until I remove the pre-release version.

I've searched through and tried to find any trace of the beta software and removed what little I had found but it still insists the beta software is on my system. Any tips on how to fix this? Yes, I have restarted since uninstalling.

3/27/2007 6:28:04 PM

reinstall the beta then uninstall it again?

3/27/2007 6:40:53 PM

what about a registry cleaner to run through and detect anything that may be leftover that mighta been missed with uninstallation?

3/27/2007 7:00:02 PM

^ Can you suggest one that's reputable? There's tons of "registry cleaners" that are really just spyware.

^^ If only I still had the installer. But that's a good idea, I think I'll try to find a beta installer and see if I can do that.


[Edited on March 27, 2007 at 7:10 PM. Reason : ]

3/27/2007 7:08:15 PM

if you can't find the beta, you can get a trial from microsoft's site. that might do the trick too

3/27/2007 7:13:39 PM

registry mechanic works wonders for me

3/27/2007 7:17:07 PM

^^ I'll try using the trial as a last resort. The trial is final release and will most likely give me the same "pre-release software" error message. I'm thinking what's left behind is part of whatever was supposed to make it difficult for you trick the beta into going past the shut off date. Explains why it's so stupidly hard to find.

Wow, my registry is full of errors... but it will only fix the ones that don't actually matter without paying. How gay.

[Edited on March 27, 2007 at 7:31 PM. Reason : ]

3/27/2007 7:18:55 PM

i had a nightmare removing office 2007 pro from my system

fucked up my outlook set-up in the process. grrrrrr
still haven't fixed that system. luckily i didn't do it on my others

3/28/2007 1:53:30 AM

http://www.ccleaner.com I install this on a lot of machines, fixes reg errors and cleans out shit temp files you dont need.

3/28/2007 4:04:52 AM

Yeah none of those things got it. Ah well, if I can't find a copy of the beta it may just be time to reformat anyways.

3/28/2007 9:53:34 AM

Tuneup Utilities 2007

3/28/2007 9:54:57 AM

So I click on a word file, expecting open office to open it. Instead an office 2007 pro beta installer begins to run and reinstalls the office 2007 beta. Since I scoured my harddrive for anything office and deleted it, I was a little surprised. After the install, word opens but doesn't warn me that the beta expires. It just runs normally.

I then open up add/remove programs and think "well it reinstalled itself, maybe it'll actually uninstall this time." The weird thing is, no office components show up in the installed program list. It added itself to the start menu. All the components work alright... they just don't seem to want to admit to being there.

4/2/2007 2:29:08 AM

fuck it- u beat the system...gg

4/2/2007 4:08:41 AM

What OS is this being tried on? Have you tried ProcessExplorer, FileMon, or TcpView to see where the installer is pulling the files from?

4/2/2007 6:06:18 AM

XP Pro. I'm done worrying about it though. I installed it on my laptop instead and will probably be reformatting this machine soon anyways.

4/2/2007 11:32:21 AM

http://www.apple.com

4/2/2007 11:38:21 AM

Hah, MS office uninstall problems exist on the mac too. If you have to use office for something, you can't escape some of its fun little quirks.

4/2/2007 11:47:16 AM

No, see...
All I have to do to uninstall it on my Mac: Drag the Office folder to the trash and it's all automatically uninstalled.

4/2/2007 11:57:48 AM

I'm referring to the trial version. I've had tons of people have the trial version fail to completely remove so that the education version would refuse to install or simply fail to associate the .doc files etc. with the version that's actually installed. I've had to provide tech support to these people, so I know it happens sometimes too. Now, whether this was because Microsoft trial software is shit or the people who came in were idiots, I can't really say.

4/2/2007 1:01:06 PM

im going to go with a little of both with that (^)

4/2/2007 1:36:32 PM

Ironically enough, removing the trial version of MS Office is easy on a Mac too. Same procedure as above.

4/2/2007 11:43:09 PM

There's actually an uninstall process for Office for Mac. Check:

Microsoft Office 2004/Additional Tools/Remove Office/Remove Office

4/3/2007 12:02:34 AM

Quote :

"Ironically enough, removing the trial version of MS Office is easy on a Mac too. Same procedure as above."

I don't know if you just can't read or what. I've seen it screw up for people before. I've had to provide tech support to people who have (on a mac) removed the office trial by dragging the folder under applications to the trash. The education version they purchased would then refuse to install at times. This didn't always happen, but it did happen several times. It's not something magical I'm imagining or making up. I'm not saying it's not "easy" on a mac, I'm just saying that MS Trial and Beta software can still fuck up on a mac.

Quote :

"Microsoft Office 2004/Additional Tools/Remove Office/Remove Office"

This would be how they expect you to remove it, NOT dragging it to the trash.

[Edited on April 3, 2007 at 11:44 AM. Reason : ]

4/3/2007 11:38:40 AM

Dragged mine to the trash, worked just fine.
Willy is just trolling.

4/4/2007 10:40:55 AM

Quote :

"No, see... All I have to do to uninstall it on my Mac: Drag the Office folder to the trash and it's all automatically uninstalled. "

4/4/2007 10:49:54 AM

Quote :

"I don't know if you just can't read or what. I've seen it screw up for people before. I've had to provide tech support to people who have (on a mac) removed the office trial by dragging the folder under applications to the trash."

Well if you're such a computer whiz maybe you can provide tech support for yourself, smartass

4/4/2007 10:50:36 AM

Yes, that's how it's supposed to work. Doesn't always. Mindstorm and smoothcrim can back me up on this if they remember. They've both worked at the bookstore and dealt with it.

Quote :

"Well if you're such a computer whiz maybe you can provide tech support for yourself, smartass"

Maybe you can learn how to use the "edit post" feature. I was responding to his condescension anyways asshole.

[Edited on April 4, 2007 at 10:52 AM. Reason : ]

4/4/2007 10:51:32 AM

office for mac creates files and directories besides the ones in your application dir. those aren't removed by dragging the application dir to the trash. thats why the uninsaller exists.

4/4/2007 12:09:01 PM

<-- Remembers from when he first started working at the bookstore.

Lots of mac customers had problems with office mac and the trial version. A lot of them just didn't uninstall it first, but several of them did claim to have done so. I don't remember them coming back after we told them "yeah, just try it again", but then again I was more of a school supplies jocky then. That and Ed took care of a lot of the computer shit.

Anyway... This isn't implausible, nor all that uncommon I'd guess. I'm going to recommend pulling out and nuking the site from orbit.

4/4/2007 3:09:23 PM