Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 (2 Viewers)

[CSI: CRIMES ™]

i heard about this, i dunno if a thread was done on it, anyways i currently have windows home edition, if i download office 2007 beta from microsoft, would it have any effect on my current windows? i have custom boot screen and i knew it when i tried to get the service pack it wont let me install it because i have a custom boot screen. Also would it remove all my current documents, files, software i have installed like photoshop, limewire, and also i have vista themes installed on my comp that has everything in my desktop looking like vista etc, thanks for any help or suggestions

 

[ogmzergrush]

The reason your custom bootscreen caused problems is because some methods of using a custom bootscreen involve replacing system files with modified versions (meaning that the service pack detects that the system files aren't the originals and suspects that something is up). Office seeing as it's a new program, rather than an extension of XP (unlike the service pack) is not likely to replicate this issue.

To the best of my knowledge, installing Office 07 Beta 2 will not impact upon any of your installed programs. Your documents will be fine, unless you happen to have them saved in the office folder (C:\program files\microsoft office\ by default) and choose to uninstall the old version of office prior to installing the new beta.

 

[ogmzergrush]

As far as I know this is the first time i've heard of a Service Pack not installing because of different system files. In fact, a service pack usually overwrites system files, so I highly doubt your custom boot screen was the reason behind your issue installing SP2.

Here is one error message which arises when the ntoskrnl.exe file has been modified in order to utilise a custom bootscreen. To be fair however, you're correct, if this is the error which is encountered, the user can choose to go ahead with the installation and overwrite the file as you suggested, providing they're confident enough to proceed.

However, another instance of a similar error can be found here, which is encountered when ntoskrnl.exe is modified AND the /kernel switch is set in the boot.ini file. This error does not provide the user with an option of overwriting the file and proceeding as normal, as you will notice. As you will also notice, both LogonUI and BootXP are suggested as causes of this problem, so it's not at all unlikely that this was the cause of the service pack refusing to install. I myself have encountered the same issue previously.

It would seem that your high amount of doubt that the boot screen was the cause is misplaced.

 

[ogmzergrush]

From that second page itself "After you complete the steps to resolve the problem, the Service Pack should install correctly. However, if your computer is running a modified Ntoskrnl.exe file, you may receive a message when you try to install the Service Pack that states that the the Service Pack setup program will replace the modified Ntoskrnl.exe file with an updated version.' So why would it stop installation the first time? Would it not overwrite said file, the first time? Sounds like Microsoft trying to remove an application it doesn't like.

Read the steps, it involves uninstalling whatever program was causing the problem, and modifying the boot.ini to remove the switch. If Microsoft took the initiative and did that for you, without you having the opportunity to backup files, or to decide that you wanted your PC pretties more than you wanted the service pack, people would cry about it till the end of time. That is of course assuming that it could correctly identify the cause of the problem and remove it successfully.

In the event that after you've made these changes, the installer still detects that the file has been modified, you're then given the opportunity to overwrite it (It will not modify your boot.ini for you under any circumstances).

Seems pretty logical to me.

 

[breaking]

does anyone else feel the urge to masturbate furiously whenever they open Word 2007?