Anomaly? Office 2008 Remove Office failed to zap some old preferences

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

I don¹t know whether it¹s because I use the PPC version of Leopard on my G5
or some malfunction, but the running of Office 2008¹s Remove Office failed
to remove the below list of old preferences in this SUBfolder of my user
prefs: Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft

(Remove Office did clear out Office 2004 preferences in the prime
Users/~/Library/Preferences folder, just not in the subfolder.)

Anybody else experience this problem?

Here's what was left in the subfolder:

com.microsoft.AlertsDaemon.plist
com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.PowerPoint.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist
Entourage Preferences
Excel Toolbars (11)
Microsoft Office ACL [English]
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Office 11 First Run
Office Font Cache (11)
Office Registration Cache 11
OLE Registration Database 11
PowerPoint Toolbars (11)
VBA Preferences
Word Font Substitutes

Because of the potential for corruption, I've now trashed those preferences
from the subfolder. All that remains in
Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft are the preferences in a subfolder
named "Office 2008."

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Norm,

I don't think it's a malfunction--I think Remove Office is designed to
NOT remove your preferences because you might want them. For instance,
some people put a lot of work into building the AutoCorrect List and
Custom Dictionary. But I'm a little bewildered by how it's supposed to
work, actually, we've complained to MS about this.

Those are all the 2004 preferences that were stored in
Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft---there shouldn't really be a
potential for corruption, as one can keep Office 2004 and Office 2008
running side by side (EXCEPT FOR ENTOURAGE), but deleting them should be
fine too.

Thanks for the report.

 

[Diane Ross]

I don't think it's a malfunction--I think Remove Office is designed to
NOT remove your preferences because you might want them. For instance,
some people put a lot of work into building the AutoCorrect List and
Custom Dictionary. But I'm a little bewildered by how it's supposed to
work, actually, we've complained to MS about this.

Some things have changed with the "Remove Office" in 2008. It's still a bit
of work in progress. IMHO

Those are all the 2004 preferences that were stored in
Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft---there shouldn't really be a
potential for corruption, as one can keep Office 2004 and Office 2008
running side by side (EXCEPT FOR ENTOURAGE), but deleting them should be
fine too.

After SP1 you can run both versions of Entourage. I haven't tried it, but it
was one of the features listed.

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Thanks very much, Daiya.

Why I started this discussion:

MVP Bob "CyberTaz" Jones suggested in an Excel newsgroup discussion that my
repeated crashes of Excel 2008 that ONLY started after the 12.1.0 update
might have been caused by the continued presence of this 2004 preference:
Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist

When several tries of trashing the 2008 preference and re-starting did not
stop the crashing, I deleted it once again--but this time--ALSO trashed the
above 2004 preference. Excel 2008 12.1.0 has not crashed since. I know:
correlation does not equal causation, but there was some suspect
association, if not causation.

FYI: I sent in a copy of the first crash report log plus additional
information to a Microsoft Mac Business Unit person who requested it after I
brought up the issue in another Excel newsgroup thread.

(Office 2008's Microsoft Error Reporting tool generated the crash log, which
I copied, just before OKing its automated transmission. That's a nice
feature. But what impresses me is the followthrough and responsiveness of
Mac Business Unit personnel when they drop into some of these newsgroup
discussions. And what really impresses me is the generosity and
thoughtfulness the MVPs and other volunteers who donate their time in these
newsgroups.

Respectfully, Norm

Hi Norm,

I don't think it's a malfunction--I think Remove Office is designed to
NOT remove your preferences because you might want them. For instance,
some people put a lot of work into building the AutoCorrect List and
Custom Dictionary. But I'm a little bewildered by how it's supposed to
work, actually, we've complained to MS about this.

Those are all the 2004 preferences that were stored in
Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft---there shouldn't really be a
potential for corruption, as one can keep Office 2004 and Office 2008
running side by side (EXCEPT FOR ENTOURAGE), but deleting them should be
fine too.

Thanks for the report.

I don©öt know whether it©ös because I use the PPC version of Leopard on my G5
or some malfunction, but the running of Office 2008©ös Remove Office failed
to remove the below list of old preferences in this SUBfolder of my user
prefs: Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft

(Remove Office did clear out Office 2004 preferences in the prime
Users/~/Library/Preferences folder, just not in the subfolder.)

Anybody else experience this problem?

Here's what was left in the subfolder:

com.microsoft.AlertsDaemon.plist
com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.PowerPoint.prefs.plist
com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist
Entourage Preferences
Excel Toolbars (11)
Microsoft Office ACL [English]
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Office 11 First Run
Office Font Cache (11)
Office Registration Cache 11
OLE Registration Database 11
PowerPoint Toolbars (11)
VBA Preferences
Word Font Substitutes

Because of the potential for corruption, I've now trashed those preferences
from the subfolder. All that remains in
Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft are the preferences in a subfolder
named "Office 2008."

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Diane Ross]

When several tries of trashing the 2008 preference and re-starting did not
stop the crashing, I deleted it once again--but this time--ALSO trashed the
above 2004 preference. Excel 2008 12.1.0 has not crashed since. I know:
correlation does not equal causation, but there was some suspect
association, if not causation.

I have Office 2004 and Office 2008 set up in different Users. That keeps
preference files completely separate. I use fast user switching when I need
to check something out in Entourage 2004.

(Office 2008's Microsoft Error Reporting tool generated the crash log, which
I copied, just before OKing its automated transmission. That's a nice
feature. But what impresses me is the followthrough and responsiveness of
Mac Business Unit personnel when they drop into some of these newsgroup
discussions. And what really impresses me is the generosity and
thoughtfulness the MVPs and other volunteers who donate their time in these
newsgroups.

Thanks for the nice compliment. The unprecedented set of improvements in SP1
was attributed to the reports sent in through the MERP tool. There were
almost 50 improvements to Entourage alone.