Sorry to create a new post, but I have tried the other posts' suggestions... can't use install new O

[MacSince1984]

Hello there,

I'm hoping someone can please help me to help a friend who is in need.
I am in Germany to attend his wife's unexpected funeral and help him
out with his 4 young children and his small business. Well, one of the
things I did was convince him to switch from an old PC to a new iMac.
And then I got him to buy a full version of Office 2004 rather than use
Apple's Windows emulator and run his old PC version of Office. So the
new Mac Office 2004 arrives, and one of his 'know it all' friends puts
the disc in the iMac and starts the installation - without first
removing the trial version.

I've removed the Office 2004 files, both trial and full versions,
cleaned up the hard drive as much as I can of any MS files, and then
started the install over. Then I came to here and I see that this is a
somewhat common problem (why didn't Microsoft just build an
auto-removal function into the full version disc?!?!). There was no
'read me' file on this disc, and the only place it states to remove the
trial version is in a normal block of text on page 4 of the
generalistic-reading brochure in the disc case.

To describe my problem, the Setup Assistant goes through the steps as
it should, and installs the full Office onto the iMac. When I launch
any of the Office apps., a window pops up saying (in German so I can't
write it verbatim) that this Office isn't a full version, but an update
version for Office 2001, and it asks if I want to locate the 2001
version to link this update. I have a choice to Quit or Proceed to
locate the 2001 version.

Problem is that there never has been a 2001 version on this iMac. I
assumed the problem is from not having properly removed the trial
version. I've spent three hours reading every related thread that I
could find on this newsgroup, and I spent the whole day trying all the
suggestions including - Microsoft de-installer, manually removing all
files, removing prefs, repairing permissions, restarting and
re-repairing permissions, re-installing system software and bundled
software from the original discs and then installing full version
again, updating OSX software, updating Office software (this was funny
because I was able to update the installed full versions but they
wouldn't launch as I described above), again re-installling original
OSX software then downloading a new trial version from MS.com and
installing it followed by properly removing it followed by installing
the full version... still the same window pops up when I try to launch
an Office application???

I'm very sorry for perpetuating this topic, but I am in a bind because
I will be leaving Germany soon, but I can't leave my friend without his
computer working properly to run his business. And sincerely being
honest, I suggested to him to go back to using his old PC in order to
get his taxes filed in time, but when we plugged it in and turned it on
the CPU started to smoke!! It sounds crazy but the old computer called
it quits.
I hope someone will be able to help please.

Gratefully,
Jim

 

[Diane Ross]

I've removed the Office 2004 files, both trial and full versions,
cleaned up the hard drive as much as I can of any MS files, and then
started the install over.

See this link for manually removing:

How to Remove Microsoft Office 2001 from Your Computer

<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;269856>

How to Manually Remove Office v. X for Mac from Your Computer

<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323675/en-us>

Here are some notes on removing the test drive:

Did you have administrator privileges when you ran "Remove Office"? Log on
to the computer by using an account that has administrative permissions.

If Office v. X was installed by a user without administrator privileges, and
later another user with administrator privileges runs the Remove Office
application from the Microsoft Office 2004 folder to remove Office v. X, the
following message appears:

You do not have permission to remove Office. Log in to the same Mac OS User
account that you used to install Office and then try again.
And then the Remove Office application displays the message, "Remove Office
has successfully removed the Office components you specified," which is not
true. To remove Office v. X, you must delete the Microsoft Office X folder
from your hard disk, or log on as a user without administrator privileges and
then run the Remove Office application

Verify permissions:

1. Click on the Microsoft Office X or 2004 folder
2. On the File menu, click Get Info.
3. Expand Ownership & Permissions, and then expand Details.
4. Click the padlock icon. In the Owner box, click the account that you used
to log on.
5. In the Access box under Owner, click Read & Write.
6. In the Group box, click the group that you want. Typically, this is the
admin group.
7. In the Access box under Group, click Read & Write.
8. In the Others box, click Read & Write.
9. Click Apply to enclosed items.

In the Microsoft Office xxx folder, double-click Remove Test Drive to remove
Office v.xxx Test Drive and all preference files.
When you run the Remove Office program, files are not removed until you
click the Remove button on the Remove Microsoft Office screen. To remove the
Test Drive, on the Results screen, click the Microsoft Office 2004
(including Test Drive) check box to select the Test Drive, and then click
Continue. In the Choose which components to remove screen, click the Remove
the Microsoft Office 2004 Test Drive folder check box to remove the Test
Drive, and then click Continue.

Office xxx program will start in disabled mode.

CAUSE: This issue occurs when you install Office X by using the Microsoft
Office Installer. It does not occur if you use the drag-and-drop method of
installation. The installer cannot overwrite certain files in the Microsoft
Office X folder on your hard disk if Office v. X Test Drive is already
installed.

RESOLUTION To resolve this issue, you must first remove Office v. X Test
Drive, and then install the Microsoft Office X program.

Hope some of these suggestions work. If not, wipe the drive and install
everything new. Then you can feel confident there are no gremlins lurking.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>