Help! MS Office is hosed because of IE8

IE8 is giving me a lot of heartburn. I tried to install it on my Acer Vista
machine. The program gave it a good try and failed, saying that it couldn't
do the installation and that I should reboot in order to return things to the
way they were.

Ahhh - the way they were. Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?

Well, I did as instructed. But then I had a Word doc to write. I finished
and tried to save. Word crashed. The Save dialog looks all corrupted.

So I tried Excel and Powerpoint. Same pattern. I tried Visio. No luck. I
tried my Open Office programs. No luck. I tried other kinds of programs, like
Notetab Pro. That works fine. I can save my files there.

I tried exporting from Google Docs to a Word format. That works fine. (So I
can use Google to create Word documents! How ironic.)

Thunderbird works fine. Paint Shop Pro, Real Draw and Xara work fine.

I contacted Microsoft. They said it's an Acer problem and I should contact
them. I contacted Acer and they told me to wipe my system clean and start
over. Apparently the fact that I've got lots of programs and data on this
system is of no concern to them. Yeah - I've got backups. That's not the
point. The point is that there's no guarantee that I could go through that
gyration and come out successful.

This is not the way to run a premier software company. I've been a PC user
since there were PCs. But I am sorely tempted to start migrating to a Google
world and get a Mac. It's not what I want to do, but man - this is very
irritating.

"The way they were..."

If only.

Hi Wordmuse,

That is because Vista had placed checkpoints on all your folders so that it
could roll back the installation. Once you reboot you should be fine. You
should then be able to download your G-document and save it to your HD.

Two lessons you should have learnt.

I. backup before a major upgrade.

2. Close all other programs when advised to do so.

Regards.

"wordmuse" <wordmuse@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5811127F-EFA9-4380-B8F6-123B82C1E9E9@microsoft.com...
> IE8 is giving me a lot of heartburn. I tried to install it on my Acer
> Vista
> machine. The program gave it a good try and failed, saying that it
> couldn't
> do the installation and that I should reboot in order to return things to
> the
> way they were.
>
> Ahhh - the way they were. Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?
>
> Well, I did as instructed. But then I had a Word doc to write. I finished
> and tried to save. Word crashed. The Save dialog looks all corrupted.
>
> So I tried Excel and Powerpoint. Same pattern. I tried Visio. No luck. I
> tried my Open Office programs. No luck. I tried other kinds of programs,
> like
> Notetab Pro. That works fine. I can save my files there.
>
> I tried exporting from Google Docs to a Word format. That works fine. (So
> I
> can use Google to create Word documents! How ironic.)
>
> Thunderbird works fine. Paint Shop Pro, Real Draw and Xara work fine.
>
> I contacted Microsoft. They said it's an Acer problem and I should contact
> them. I contacted Acer and they told me to wipe my system clean and start
> over. Apparently the fact that I've got lots of programs and data on this
> system is of no concern to them. Yeah - I've got backups. That's not the
> point. The point is that there's no guarantee that I could go through that
> gyration and come out successful.
>
> This is not the way to run a premier software company. I've been a PC user
> since there were PCs. But I am sorely tempted to start migrating to a
> Google
> world and get a Mac. It's not what I want to do, but man - this is very
> irritating.
>
> "The way they were..."
>
> If only.

You installed unfinished software on your computer.

And you did not backup your system first.

Did you see the movie "Death Wish"?
---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

wordmuse wrote:
> IE8 is giving me a lot of heartburn. I tried to install it on my Acer Vista
> machine. The program gave it a good try and failed, saying that it couldn't
> do the installation and that I should reboot in order to return things to the
> way they were.
>
> Ahhh - the way they were. Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?
>
> Well, I did as instructed. But then I had a Word doc to write. I finished
> and tried to save. Word crashed. The Save dialog looks all corrupted.
>
> So I tried Excel and Powerpoint. Same pattern. I tried Visio. No luck. I
> tried my Open Office programs. No luck. I tried other kinds of programs, like
> Notetab Pro. That works fine. I can save my files there.
>
> I tried exporting from Google Docs to a Word format. That works fine. (So I
> can use Google to create Word documents! How ironic.)
>
> Thunderbird works fine. Paint Shop Pro, Real Draw and Xara work fine.
>
> I contacted Microsoft. They said it's an Acer problem and I should contact
> them. I contacted Acer and they told me to wipe my system clean and start
> over. Apparently the fact that I've got lots of programs and data on this
> system is of no concern to them. Yeah - I've got backups. That's not the
> point. The point is that there's no guarantee that I could go through that
> gyration and come out successful.
>
> This is not the way to run a premier software company. I've been a PC user
> since there were PCs. But I am sorely tempted to start migrating to a Google
> world and get a Mac. It's not what I want to do, but man - this is very
> irritating.
>
> "The way they were..."
>
> If only.

The real point is a short four letter word: BETA ... and the disclaimer not
to install BETA software on a production machine.

There are some other postings in this ng where people actually think IE8
BETA is an upgrade to IE7 !

Really, folks need to read download instructions before installing anything
on their machines.

Sorry for your loss.



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression






"wordmuse" <wordmuse@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5811127F-EFA9-4380-B8F6-123B82C1E9E9@microsoft.com...
> IE8 is giving me a lot of heartburn. I tried to install it on my Acer
> Vista
> machine. The program gave it a good try and failed, saying that it
> couldn't
> do the installation and that I should reboot in order to return things to
> the
> way they were.
>
> Ahhh - the way they were. Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?
>
> Well, I did as instructed. But then I had a Word doc to write. I finished
> and tried to save. Word crashed. The Save dialog looks all corrupted.
>
> So I tried Excel and Powerpoint. Same pattern. I tried Visio. No luck. I
> tried my Open Office programs. No luck. I tried other kinds of programs,
> like
> Notetab Pro. That works fine. I can save my files there.
>
> I tried exporting from Google Docs to a Word format. That works fine. (So
> I
> can use Google to create Word documents! How ironic.)
>
> Thunderbird works fine. Paint Shop Pro, Real Draw and Xara work fine.
>
> I contacted Microsoft. They said it's an Acer problem and I should contact
> them. I contacted Acer and they told me to wipe my system clean and start
> over. Apparently the fact that I've got lots of programs and data on this
> system is of no concern to them. Yeah - I've got backups. That's not the
> point. The point is that there's no guarantee that I could go through that
> gyration and come out successful.
>
> This is not the way to run a premier software company. I've been a PC user
> since there were PCs. But I am sorely tempted to start migrating to a
> Google
> world and get a Mac. It's not what I want to do, but man - this is very
> irritating.
>
> "The way they were..."
>
> If only.

My data is fine - I do back up regularly - thanks. And yes - I was foolish
going with a Beta. That *is* a lesson learned.

On the matter of rebooting: I've rebooted several times with no effect on
Word.

Maybe I didn't communicate clearly. The problem isn't that I can't write
and save files. I just can't do it with MS Office or Open Office.

I can save files with Wordpad. I can save files with Google Docs. I can save
files with my graphics programs. What I *can't* seem to do is save them with
Office programs.

It IS the last time I'll download a beta program. That's a lesson learned.
But really, it would be nice if someone had some thoughts about how to FIX
the problem rather than just calling me an idiot, which I fully acknowledge I
was.