Windows 7 + Office 07 Users - I'm Calling You Out.

[Jayce]

Hey there fellas... got a quick question... this applies to anybody running Windows 7 + Office 07. To be blunt, have you had any issues? Reason I ask is we have been SLOWLY trying out Windows 7 on a few select people here at the district, yet Office 07 problems have been slowly coming about, particularly with Word and only Word... While nobody has had the exact same issue as the next person, I've gotten a handful of complaints... enough that it sparks my interest. To date, we have Office 07 in hundreds of XP systems with no issues. Yet with Office 07 on maybe 30 systems, I can count on two hands how many problems have come about. Quite simply from Word not opening, or Word crashing randomly, or Word flashing the cursor at a million miles an hour. In each instance, often times re-installing Office didn't help, and it would duplicate it under different profiles/users as well. I also tried a second Office CD and even installed Office digitally with the files stored locally on one of the problematic systems. That way this took the CD and any media out of the way for being problematic (scratched, improperly burned, etc).

A funny little side story, yesterday my buddy was over, who dual boots his personal laptop and was currently in Win 7 doing a project for school on Word 07. I was helping him a little bit since he was asking for suggestions on how to arrange the formatting of the report he was writing, etc. I physically saw him shut off Word but leave his laptop on. We went to Taco Bell, came back, he opened Word... crash. No updates. No reboot. Nothing to indicate he did anything differently or wrong. He called me a little bit ago, and said he uninstalled Office 07 and dumped the entire Office folder in the registry, then reinstalled and things were okay. This was of course after several hours of googling for a solution and coming up empty, so he did that on a complete hunch.

Anyway, I'm beginning to see a pattern, and I'm trying to squash it before things span out on a larger spectrum with the wicked Win7/Office 07 combo here. Last thing I want to have to do is re-image systems several times a year cause of a stupid fluke I may have been able to avoid. While I'm happy my buddy got Office running again on his laptop, this is by no means a "solution."

So, Windows 7 users. What are you seeing?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I've been running Office 2k7 on Windows 7 Pro 64bit since the launch without incident on my desktop and 2k7+ 7 Pro x86 on my laptop since the beta also without incident.

We also have ~30 systems at work running Windows 7 Enterprise x86 and Office 2k7 and I haven't heard of any issues but I'm not really in the loop regarding their status. Normally I would ask the guy who manages them but this would be the one day he isn't in the office.

 

[Jayce]

I've been running Office 2k7 on Windows 7 Pro 64bit since the launch without incident on my desktop and 2k7+ 7 Pro x86 on my laptop since the beta also without incident.

We also have ~30 systems at work running Windows 7 Enterprise x86 and Office 2k7 and I haven't heard of any issues but I'm not really in the loop regarding their status. Normally I would ask the guy who manages them but this would be the one day he isn't in the office.

Hahah, isn't that how it always works? Thanks for the feedback. I began to wonder if it was "our" setup (somehow) that was causing it to backfire, though I couldn't think of anything that would have caused it with my installs since I'm pretty basic about what I do and how I put them together. Then when my buddy's laptop backfired last night with me as a witness I was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahaha wait a minute here..........

 

[KSoD]

I have run it on several machines with no issues. I have even run it with Beta SP's as well. But then again i never seem to get the issues most do. but Office 07 should work flawlessly as it was the only version of Office that was out at the time of the release of Win7. Office 10 was released after.

 

[Jayce]

Office 07 should work flawlessly

should.

 

[KSoD]

Yes i say should cause with the thousands of setups you have there is never going to be an answer to every machine and every setup. I mean a file could not copy correctly on a machine for all we know and that is causing this issue. Maybe the drive is bad, maybe it has a bad sector, maybe the RAM is starting to have issues. There is no way to say "Yes it will work on every machine and every setup flawlessly" cause that is never the case with any PC.

There is no way that we can sit here and even attempt to understand it cause we dont know. I do remember that you said you had some Dell Optiplex machines right? Dell has a lawsuit against them for using faulty hardware in them.

Lawsuit: Dell knowingly shipped 12 million faulty computers

So i leave that margin of error in there cause it covers such factors. I do know that i have used Office 2007 along with its Beta aspects on pre release builds of Win7, along with beta versions of Win7 SP1. Never a single issue. Add into that i was using Beta software such as MSE Beta Builds and i had the greatest chance for errors. Yet i managed to escape with no issues.

 

[Jayce]

I understand the issue could be beyond the realm of the software (Windows, Office) and I'm not excluding that. Yes, we are a Dell shop for the vast majority. We have been slowly (re)integrating HP systems into the mix since HP has been having some sweet business deals lately. Of the issues I've had with the Win7/Office07 combo has been a mixed gender of HP and Dell, though primarily Dell.

I would also expect this to be an image problem, but so far we have not mass deployed Windows 7 that would require imaging. These systems are for certain staff members, mostly people who have been on older laptops and need an upgraded system. So we're upgrading them 1 at a time for the people who need it. As a result, fresh install each time. For what it's worth, I have yet to experience this issue on a desktop, which is what our Optiplex line consists of.

Like I said, I just really thought it was something in house until my buddy's laptop gave him the finger last night. As funny as it was, it was also very valuable for me to see that maybe (just maybe) the issue is beyond anything I (as your average tech) can fix at the present time. Then again I couldn't even dig up any definitive information to signify that there IS an issue being worked on. Either there is and nobody knows about it but me or I'm just one unlucky *******.

I highly doubt we will mass deploy Win7/Office 07 when it comes down to the masses for labs and laptops and whatnot. I expect (and hope) we begin utilizing OpenOffice whenever (and if-ever) the OS upgrade takes place. Even still, this "pattern" I've noticed has sparked enough curiosity to... at the very least... just ask others to get a further opinion about what I'm seeing.

 

[KSoD]

I know what your saying. I have used Office 07 on at least 10 different machines from pre-built to custom built and not a single one has experienced these issues. Granted i also dont know how much the program is being used on each system either. I know i use it fairly often for several different tasks. But i have also upgraded to Office 10 now myself as well and havent used Office 07 in some time. I know that there are many topics about Office on the various Softie sites i regular. So it isnt an isolated occurance. I have seen issues ranging from what you talk about to problems with just trying to install and everything in between. Most of the time the fix your friend did is the answer. Remove the program and registry entries and reinstall. 99% of the time it fixes the issues. For those having an issue installing it is usually either cause they have a demo version installed or the version they purchased doesnt match the trial on their machine.

So i can verify that Office 07 does have various issues, which most seem to have been fixed with the newer release. As i see very few topics about Office 10 on the Softie sites.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Hahah, isn't that how it always works? Thanks for the feedback. I began to wonder if it was "our" setup (somehow) that was causing it to backfire, though I couldn't think of anything that would have caused it with my installs since I'm pretty basic about what I do and how I put them together. Then when my buddy's laptop backfired last night with me as a witness I was like ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahaha wait a minute here..........

If he is back in Wednesday I will be sure to ask about it. It's actually a bit of a fluke that those systems ended up with Office 2k7 at all, we were instructed to use Office 2010 whenever possible shortly after we finished imaging all of them.

We are just about 100% Dell on the Windows side too so if it's a hardware issue we would have a pretty good chance of running into it.

 

[Jayce]

Soooooo wanna hear something really funny?

Uninstalled Office 07
Rebooted
Start - Run - Regedit
Removed Office folder from registry
Rebooted
Installed Office 07
Rebooted
Opened Word

To my expectations, it ****ed up yet again. Redoing the 4 week old install of it tomorrow.







!!