Trial versions of Office may be getting in the way of migration of Office 2007

Create: Dom, 2011-08-28 15:15
Author: mazarick

I looked at the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEAghr8SWIA

I read the User Manual as much as anyone does (not much), but I did download and install the Foundation Classes so that the PickMeApp app could expect what it needs to be there. In particular, I read and did this:
"5.0. Pre-deployment checklist

It is recommended to upgrade Windows Installer to version 3.1 when working with PickMeApp.

Many programs require a runtime environment to be installed on the destination system. As for now PickMeApp Beta doesn’t check if the required environment is installed. Therefore it is recommended to download and install the following:

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)
Java Runtime Environment"

Nowadays, almost everyone on a new machine will be running 64 bits, so PickMeApp has to be very specific about what should be downloaded and what is already there. This bleeds into a Feature Request because the Pre-deployment checklist should be 'semi-automated'.

I'm getting an error after the Office 2007 apps have been migrated. It is more of a nag than a showstopper, but when I open any Office app, I get the message:
"Setup controller has encountered a problem during install. Please review the log files for further information on the error." Now, where this log file is located is not obvious, nor is how to go about reading it. After googling around a bit, it appears that what is needed is a complete uninstall/reinstall (assuming the trial version is getting in the way of the migration).
http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f10/an-error-saying-the-setup-co…
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080211141923AAUkJyY
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-office_inst…
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218

Nobody likes to do a complete uninstall/reinstall, and in particular, nobody likes to be surprised with having to do this once they figure out how to get Office "almost" working. If an uninstall of a trial version is needed, then this should be part of the PreDeployment process, because this can be done by PickMeApp.

SInce the trial versions of Office are on almost all new OEM installations on all new WIndows machines, and because your product really works great (abeit a bit more testing and a small amount of documentation like this is required). If it turns out like it appears, this is worthy of updating the documentation and forum postings.

It is also worthwhile to explain where and when to use other tools like Easy Transfer. They could easily fit into the process and do things that PickMeApp doesn't do. The order of execution (PickMeApp, Easy Transfer, etc.) should be specified because everyone is looking for a 'cookbook' to use. There is no need to get into a bunch of stuff about Easy Transfer, Regedit, etc. but knowing how these tools fit in and where they fit in during the "hour of need" would help everybody.

An example of what should be documented is the complete process of getting someone's OutLook email transferred, which have powerpoint and word attachements.

-Mike

mazarick    August 29, 2011

After moving a bit deeper into the "resurrect a drive contents from a dying hard disk" saga that I am playing out, I believe the fact there are two versions of Office installed on my new computer is probably not the source of the error message described previously.. (I have a trial Office 2010 Office on the new machine and a real Office 2007 from my old box)

I'm running into several issues. I divided the applications into folders/profiles and basically grabbed all of them. Some of the profiles aren't showing up even though they are explicitly named in the log. I can create a new profile and a new directory to put the .tap files in, so I'm not 'doomed'.

In summary; some applications work and some applications don't. I'll wait until I've got something more definitive to say before I post again (ie. a root cause is found).

-Mike