Alpesh Nakar's Blog

I was one in millions to have downloaded, installed and experienced 2007 Microsoft Office System. Since it’s going gold, I am sure many of the millions, would have ‘upgraded’ from Beta 2 Technical Refresh to the ‘gold version’ which was made available via technet plus and msdn subscriber downloads.

Certainly most of them would have faced this issue – you could not install the ‘office 2007 rtm’, without uninstalling the beta 2 technical refresh version. As I have experienced over this weekend, it was not straight forward. I banked on my experience with SharePoint 2007 Beta 2 upgrade to SharePoint 2007 Beta 2 TR and did a quick search to see if that was the path to be taken. Indeed it had to be. However, steps listed in the post were not enough. I still could not install the ‘real thing’. I followed the steps to the tee, since I had carried out similar steps for SharePoint 2007 Beta 2 TR. So, what did I do different and why should you read this post any further?

1. Delete %systemdrive%\program files\common files\microsoft shared\office12\ folder, to start with.
2. Launch regedt32
3. Search for office12. Leave no space. Its Office12. Delete any and every reference to Office12. *I take no responsibility, whatsoever, if your system fails, after you have carried out these steps*
4. Uninstall any add-ins for Office 2007 Beta Release. My installation failed, even after I had carried out the first 3 steps. So make sure, you uninstall add-ins/plugins like the PDF/XPS, etc.

Now you should be absolutely right and sorted to go ‘gold’

By the way, do you know that Office 2007 Trial Version has been made available. It is currently available only for US, Canada, Japan, Germany, UK/Ireland, France. It can be downloaded from here for US.

In answer to Amit’s doubts – yes after installing trial version, you get an option to enter the ‘real’ serial number. So you don’t have re-install. At the end of 60 days, the trial expires and you can enter the purchased key. Its all in the key! RTM version + Trial Key = Trial Version

Enjoy the ‘gold’ Installation is a breeze, once you have followed the above steps.