Sunday, May 28, 2006
Office 2007 Beta 2: recovering from the damage
After logging in as a different user and trying Safe Mode, Explorer would still not run so I still had no start menu, taskbar, etc. I decided to use System Restore to refer back to the time before I installed IE7. This did not work, though for a moment I was excited because my AVG Anti-Virus seemed to launch and update its pattern file. I did the restore from Safe Mode and while logged in as Administrator rather than my own usual user without thinking, but I don't think was the issue. (There are no files outside of C:\WINDOWS and maybe C:\Program Files covered by System Restore, so nothing is "personal" to a given user.)
I noticed that Office 2007 was not in the list of actions in the System Restore list. So I guess that install didn't make a restore point. Thanks, Microsoft. So, while logged in as myself in normal boot mode, I reverted back to "Printer Driver Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Installed", hoping that maybe it was one of the IE 7 required hotfixes that screwed me, not Office 2007 itself. (Note: without a start menu, you must know that System Restore is C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Restore\rstrui.exe to run System Restore.)
This didn't fix it either. So apparently whatever happened ruined my Windows Explorer shell to a degree that was not evident when I successfully booted up after the Office 2007 install. One thing I noticed was that none of the files replaced by the System Restore were different versions. Has System Restore not been taking the snapshots? Or do I need to reboot again after System Restore for things to work? Taking the easy route, I rebooted again. I saw the taskbar appear and disappear so that didn't work.
I ran rstrui again and this time reverted my (nonexistent) changes. Then on reboot I went back to the day before ("Windows Defender Checkpoint"). This worked! Now to see how screwed up things really were…
I checked and IE had been reverted back to version 6. With some trepidation, I launched Outlook to see what version it was and received a Windows Installer message asking where MAINSP2op.MSP was located. I searched my hard drives and it wasn't on there, and when I cancelled the message box, I was told that "MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version". Word launched, asked for MAINSP2op.MSP a bunch of times, and then failed. Well, I guess I knew I was going to mess up Office 2003 with this install, so I figured I shouldn't waste a bunch of time fixing it, but I didn't want to start off my Office 2007 install based on a messed-up Office 2003 install.
Next steps:
Uninstall Office 2003
Checkpoint my system in System Restore
Install IE 7
Install Office 2007 Beta 2
Great way to spend a weekend, huh?
I noticed that Office 2007 was not in the list of actions in the System Restore list. So I guess that install didn't make a restore point. Thanks, Microsoft. So, while logged in as myself in normal boot mode, I reverted back to "Printer Driver Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Installed", hoping that maybe it was one of the IE 7 required hotfixes that screwed me, not Office 2007 itself. (Note: without a start menu, you must know that System Restore is C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Restore\rstrui.exe to run System Restore.)
This didn't fix it either. So apparently whatever happened ruined my Windows Explorer shell to a degree that was not evident when I successfully booted up after the Office 2007 install. One thing I noticed was that none of the files replaced by the System Restore were different versions. Has System Restore not been taking the snapshots? Or do I need to reboot again after System Restore for things to work? Taking the easy route, I rebooted again. I saw the taskbar appear and disappear so that didn't work.
I ran rstrui again and this time reverted my (nonexistent) changes. Then on reboot I went back to the day before ("Windows Defender Checkpoint"). This worked! Now to see how screwed up things really were…
I checked and IE had been reverted back to version 6. With some trepidation, I launched Outlook to see what version it was and received a Windows Installer message asking where MAINSP2op.MSP was located. I searched my hard drives and it wasn't on there, and when I cancelled the message box, I was told that "MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version". Word launched, asked for MAINSP2op.MSP a bunch of times, and then failed. Well, I guess I knew I was going to mess up Office 2003 with this install, so I figured I shouldn't waste a bunch of time fixing it, but I didn't want to start off my Office 2007 install based on a messed-up Office 2003 install.
Next steps:
Uninstall Office 2003
Checkpoint my system in System Restore
Install IE 7
Install Office 2007 Beta 2
Great way to spend a weekend, huh?
# posted by sbreck : 4:29 PM
