B
Biztekguy
I attended the 'Launch 2007 Event' this past Thursday and received a free
download of Office Professional. After five attempts to download the two EXE
files (they often completed their download without the file extension, or
with a file extension that was unrecognizable), I was finally able to
initialize the installation. Since my six-month old Windows x64 PC had a
failed Office Beta on it, the installation of the final product failed as
well. According to the instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base documents
#256986 and #928218, I methodically performed a colonoscopy on my PC, but to
no avail.
I then decided to use the 'free' copy of Office Pro on my brand new, dual
core, Vista-ready Dell computer at work - a PC on which I never attempted to
install the Office 2007 beta. This time I documented each frustrating step
of the process:
The initial progress meter window blinks off after five minutes and no
replacement screen comes up for fourteen minutes. Then the Office 2007
splash screen appears and you are prompted to enter the serial number. After
you key in the next-to-the-last digit, you will need to wait two and a half
minutes before the screen will register the last of your twenty-four serial
number digits. You may then select 'Upgrade' or 'Custom.' After twenty-nine
minutes, the splash screen blinks out. Eighteen minutes later you will
receive an apology screen, indicating that Microsoft is sorry for the
inconvenience for a failed install. As a consolation prize, you may take the
opportunity to report the problem! If you click this option, the apology
screen blinks out immediately. You will have virtually no functionality in
your PC from this point forward. It doesn't matter how many gigahertz your
processor has, or whether you have the recommended Vista-ready 2 MB of RAM.
On my first install, I waited two hours before pulling the power on my PC.
On my brand new Dell at the office, nothing happened after thirty-two minutes
and I had to get back to being productive. I eventually had to pull the plug
on this PC as well.
In neither attempt, did I receive the normal check screen that shows the
progress of the error-submission. But then I'm not a patient guy. I have
twenty-one PCs, seven laptops, two servers and a SQL database to keep
running. And in my spare time, I keep a small five-PC peer-to-peer network
running too. If any of you is willing to give it a couple of additional days
before rebooting, let me know if the error-submission process ever completes.
download of Office Professional. After five attempts to download the two EXE
files (they often completed their download without the file extension, or
with a file extension that was unrecognizable), I was finally able to
initialize the installation. Since my six-month old Windows x64 PC had a
failed Office Beta on it, the installation of the final product failed as
well. According to the instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base documents
#256986 and #928218, I methodically performed a colonoscopy on my PC, but to
no avail.
I then decided to use the 'free' copy of Office Pro on my brand new, dual
core, Vista-ready Dell computer at work - a PC on which I never attempted to
install the Office 2007 beta. This time I documented each frustrating step
of the process:
The initial progress meter window blinks off after five minutes and no
replacement screen comes up for fourteen minutes. Then the Office 2007
splash screen appears and you are prompted to enter the serial number. After
you key in the next-to-the-last digit, you will need to wait two and a half
minutes before the screen will register the last of your twenty-four serial
number digits. You may then select 'Upgrade' or 'Custom.' After twenty-nine
minutes, the splash screen blinks out. Eighteen minutes later you will
receive an apology screen, indicating that Microsoft is sorry for the
inconvenience for a failed install. As a consolation prize, you may take the
opportunity to report the problem! If you click this option, the apology
screen blinks out immediately. You will have virtually no functionality in
your PC from this point forward. It doesn't matter how many gigahertz your
processor has, or whether you have the recommended Vista-ready 2 MB of RAM.
On my first install, I waited two hours before pulling the power on my PC.
On my brand new Dell at the office, nothing happened after thirty-two minutes
and I had to get back to being productive. I eventually had to pull the plug
on this PC as well.
In neither attempt, did I receive the normal check screen that shows the
progress of the error-submission. But then I'm not a patient guy. I have
twenty-one PCs, seven laptops, two servers and a SQL database to keep
running. And in my spare time, I keep a small five-PC peer-to-peer network
running too. If any of you is willing to give it a couple of additional days
before rebooting, let me know if the error-submission process ever completes.