Office 2007 has gone gold. The new version requires uninstallation of any previous beta versions. However, many users are finding that they cannot uninstall the previous beta versions. Here are some work-arounds and fixes for this issue so that you can avoid that “rolling back changes” error message!
In our test network, we have seen multiple errors when trying to uninstall the beta versions of Office 2007.
Other times, we have seen residual errors when trying to install the official version. Here are ways that we have gotten around this issue.
Some users have just reinstalled a previous, older retail version of Office. If you have a version nearby, that might be an easy fix for you.
Here is the best cocktail that I have found.
1. Create a manual way of backing up your Outlook information. However, this automated Outlook backup tool from Microsoft is better.
2. Clean out the temporary file areas with Disk Cleanup.
Go to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup.
Make sure you clean out log files, dump files, installation files, etc.
3. Install Windows Install CleanUp. Save the utility to your desktop. You will need administrative level privileges to install it. In Vista, you will need to right-click on the setup file and select Run as administrator.
We have discussed the use of this powerful tool before. Select all the Office installation entries, and then click the Remove button. Click Exit when done.
4. Now, you can uninstall Office 2007 Beta as you typically would from the Control Panel.
At this point, the program is uninstalled; however, there are still numerous Office-related files in the office directories.
You can try installing the official, retail version of Office 2007 at this point, if you wish. I would try to clean out these directories first. Office typically lives in here: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office.
Some files may be system protected and may be difficult to delete. I have not found that jumping through all the hoops to delete these is needed.
These techniques solved our various problems with uninstalling Office 2007 beta. I hope you will find them useful.
