M
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
PMFJI, but who forced you to click on the download link, open the installer,
enter your product key and say yes to installation? Criminal? No -
however, just remember this:
"There are seldom technological solutions to behavioral problems."
Did you read the entire page with about 12 points about beta software, chief
among them being:
Not for production use.
Can cause corruption and crashes.
Do not install at work.
I am sorry, but voluntarily going to a site, downloading software advertised
as BETA and installing and then mewling and whining about how you were
tricked into doing this does not say much about your acumen.
Harsh words? Yes, Deserved? Probably. Microsoft'f fault? No. User
error? Most definitely. You made assumptions that Microsoft did not support
and now you are p*ssed at them. Going to a different product at year's end?
Fine. Whatever. Microsoft will always have new business. However, I would
think Microsoft is better off without someone who would install beta
software on a production machine, having been warned, and then complaining
when an uninstall does not work.
As for the Class Action Suit, I can see the trial now:
Attorney for Microsoft: "Did you read the warnings on the download front
page?"
Plaintiff: "Yes, but..."
Judge: "Case dismissed."
My $.02.
--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.
After furious head scratching, John in Kentucky asked:
| JoAnn, and anyone who gets this far,
|
| Five days later I'm back on Office 2003 Pro. I'm not sure how, but
| I'm certain one of the main keys was to delete the file MSMAPI.DLL
| (NOT mapi.dll). This is apparently the messaging from 2007 Beta 2
| causing the conflict.
|
| I am issuing a general warning, however, to MS. Marketing beta
| products to non-developers, promoting it as a test when it's truly a
| conversion, and forcing general users to commit unknowingly are
| criminal acts as far as I'm concerned. I'm instructing my IT person
| today to look for alternatives to MS products for our entire company,
| including researching the new GOOGLE freeware. What they are doing
| here with Office 2007 beta should lead to a class action suit of epic
| proportions.
|
| "JoAnn Paules [MVP]" wrote:
|
|| I agree with you - beta software should not be offered willy-nilly.
|| We have a lot of people who are botching up their systems because
|| they don't know what they are doing. I've already said that on Jan
|| 31, 2007, I am going offline for a few days. When all of those
|| people who didn't read the cautions find that their copy of Office
|| 2007 is at best nothing but a viewer, they will freak. And then when
|| they learn they actually have to BUY the software at full
|| price........I'll be at the mall that day. No computers. Just me and
|| the mannequins.
||
||
|| --
||
|| JoAnn Paules
|| MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
||
||
||
|| in message ||| Thanks Mary, and Paula (previous).
|||
||| I suppose I'm really stuck, but unlike you folks, I think I have a
||| more legitimate gripe with MS. I'm not a developer, just a
||| registered Office2003
||| Pro user. I received an unsolicited email from MS offering me a
||| free trial
||| of 2007. I'm an executive manager (not IT) who was invited years
||| ago to a one-day MS course when 2003 was being readied for release.
||| I was given a free copy of 2003 and a day of training, I'm sure as
||| an inducement to talk it
||| up in my company and others. I admittedly did not read the offer
||| terms this
||| time, and recognize they covered their '6' with it, but still and
||| all I consider it deceptive.
|||
||| I don't live in the 'beta world', but, as evidenced by the many
||| problems like mine, do like having the latest edition. MS should
||| never offer beta installs, especially those that are irreversible,
||| to rank and file users. I
||| thought it was a chance to test a new product and, if I liked it
||| would purchase it when the license expired. No more, no less. I
||| wasn't contacted
||| as a paid or volunteer developer/tester.
|||
||| Does that make sense? I've lost 3 days so far and believe it will
||| be one more before I can be back to where I started last week.
|||
||| John
|||
||| "John in Kentucky" wrote:
|||
|||| HELP! HELP! Running XP on a 1-user machine.
||||
|||| I downloaded and installed Office2007beta2; had probs, uninstalled
|||| it. Diagnostics found probs were due to conflicting versions of
|||| Office (have 2003PRO). Reinstalled beta then tried to delete
|||| 2003. Didn't work (Error
|||| message: The patch package could not be opened. Verify that the
|||| patch package exists and your can access it, or contact the app
|||| vendor to verify
|||| that this is a valid windows installer package". I can't
|||| uninstall 2003; 2007beta is conflicted. Please help. I didn't
|||| realize 2007 would install
|||| without making proper changes to 2003.
||||
|||| Every time I try to do anything within MS apps the Windows
|||| Installer pops up
|||| with the above message.
||||
|||| Uninstalling 2007beta2 doesn't work because I can't reinstall
|||| 2003Pro. And,
|||| I can't uninstall 2003Pro. Meanwhile, I'm about to lose my job
|||| for lack of
|||| productivity.
||||
|||| Any help appreciated
enter your product key and say yes to installation? Criminal? No -
however, just remember this:
"There are seldom technological solutions to behavioral problems."
Did you read the entire page with about 12 points about beta software, chief
among them being:
Not for production use.
Can cause corruption and crashes.
Do not install at work.
I am sorry, but voluntarily going to a site, downloading software advertised
as BETA and installing and then mewling and whining about how you were
tricked into doing this does not say much about your acumen.
Harsh words? Yes, Deserved? Probably. Microsoft'f fault? No. User
error? Most definitely. You made assumptions that Microsoft did not support
and now you are p*ssed at them. Going to a different product at year's end?
Fine. Whatever. Microsoft will always have new business. However, I would
think Microsoft is better off without someone who would install beta
software on a production machine, having been warned, and then complaining
when an uninstall does not work.
As for the Class Action Suit, I can see the trial now:
Attorney for Microsoft: "Did you read the warnings on the download front
page?"
Plaintiff: "Yes, but..."
Judge: "Case dismissed."
My $.02.
--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.
After furious head scratching, John in Kentucky asked:
| JoAnn, and anyone who gets this far,
|
| Five days later I'm back on Office 2003 Pro. I'm not sure how, but
| I'm certain one of the main keys was to delete the file MSMAPI.DLL
| (NOT mapi.dll). This is apparently the messaging from 2007 Beta 2
| causing the conflict.
|
| I am issuing a general warning, however, to MS. Marketing beta
| products to non-developers, promoting it as a test when it's truly a
| conversion, and forcing general users to commit unknowingly are
| criminal acts as far as I'm concerned. I'm instructing my IT person
| today to look for alternatives to MS products for our entire company,
| including researching the new GOOGLE freeware. What they are doing
| here with Office 2007 beta should lead to a class action suit of epic
| proportions.
|
| "JoAnn Paules [MVP]" wrote:
|
|| I agree with you - beta software should not be offered willy-nilly.
|| We have a lot of people who are botching up their systems because
|| they don't know what they are doing. I've already said that on Jan
|| 31, 2007, I am going offline for a few days. When all of those
|| people who didn't read the cautions find that their copy of Office
|| 2007 is at best nothing but a viewer, they will freak. And then when
|| they learn they actually have to BUY the software at full
|| price........I'll be at the mall that day. No computers. Just me and
|| the mannequins.
||
||
|| --
||
|| JoAnn Paules
|| MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
||
||
||
|| in message ||| Thanks Mary, and Paula (previous).
|||
||| I suppose I'm really stuck, but unlike you folks, I think I have a
||| more legitimate gripe with MS. I'm not a developer, just a
||| registered Office2003
||| Pro user. I received an unsolicited email from MS offering me a
||| free trial
||| of 2007. I'm an executive manager (not IT) who was invited years
||| ago to a one-day MS course when 2003 was being readied for release.
||| I was given a free copy of 2003 and a day of training, I'm sure as
||| an inducement to talk it
||| up in my company and others. I admittedly did not read the offer
||| terms this
||| time, and recognize they covered their '6' with it, but still and
||| all I consider it deceptive.
|||
||| I don't live in the 'beta world', but, as evidenced by the many
||| problems like mine, do like having the latest edition. MS should
||| never offer beta installs, especially those that are irreversible,
||| to rank and file users. I
||| thought it was a chance to test a new product and, if I liked it
||| would purchase it when the license expired. No more, no less. I
||| wasn't contacted
||| as a paid or volunteer developer/tester.
|||
||| Does that make sense? I've lost 3 days so far and believe it will
||| be one more before I can be back to where I started last week.
|||
||| John
|||
||| "John in Kentucky" wrote:
|||
|||| HELP! HELP! Running XP on a 1-user machine.
||||
|||| I downloaded and installed Office2007beta2; had probs, uninstalled
|||| it. Diagnostics found probs were due to conflicting versions of
|||| Office (have 2003PRO). Reinstalled beta then tried to delete
|||| 2003. Didn't work (Error
|||| message: The patch package could not be opened. Verify that the
|||| patch package exists and your can access it, or contact the app
|||| vendor to verify
|||| that this is a valid windows installer package". I can't
|||| uninstall 2003; 2007beta is conflicted. Please help. I didn't
|||| realize 2007 would install
|||| without making proper changes to 2003.
||||
|||| Every time I try to do anything within MS apps the Windows
|||| Installer pops up
|||| with the above message.
||||
|||| Uninstalling 2007beta2 doesn't work because I can't reinstall
|||| 2003Pro. And,
|||| I can't uninstall 2003Pro. Meanwhile, I'm about to lose my job
|||| for lack of
|||| productivity.
||||
|||| Any help appreciated