Best Way to Upgrade to Office 2010

[sobershea]

I just purchased Office 2007 so that I can get a free upgrade to Office 2010. Right now I am using Office 2003. Is there a preferred way to upgrade? Meaning, the purist in me thinks I should uninstall Office entirely and then install Office 2010, inserting the Office 2007 CD when required during the install process. It just seems like there would be a lot of leftover debris if I upgraded to 2007 and then next month upgraded to 2010. Thoughts?

TIA

[HansV]

In general, a "clean" install is best, but are you sure that you want to move to Office 2010 right away? It might be better to wait until the first bugs have been fixed.

[TonyE]

Just making sure you are aware, you need to install and activate Office 2007 between 5th March and 30th September 2010 in order to be eligible for the free upgrade to Office 2010. In order to download Office 2010 you need an activated Office 2007 product ID.

[sobershea]

Oh, you are right, and I knew that! Duh!
So, I guess that means I can't do a "clean" install. After I have purchased 2010 and installed it, would I then be able to uninstall and do a "clean" install? Or should I quit being so picky?

[DaveA]

I have NOT had issues with installing a newer version of Office with a older on installed. Every time I have done this, the install has asked if it could uninstall the installed copy. Just click OK, and it will be uninstalled and then the new version will be.

[ErikJan]

So here's my question under this "Best Way to Upgrade" topic...

I'm in the lucky position that I can get MS Office via the HUP program. I got "MS Office Enterprise 2007" a while back and purchased "MS Office Professional Plus 2010" yesterday (it's the official version; in HUP it's already available).

Now the HUP (sorry, that's Microsofts' Home Use Program available for employees from companies who buy many licenses commercially), does NOT allow me to upgrade and therefore the 2010 is a full version.

I see two options available:

(1) I install 2010 over 2007. I'm assuming this will overwrite en replace 2007 but in the process migrate the settings I had in 2007 for me. Of course maybe some 'garbage' would remain...

(2) I uninstall 2007 completely and the install 2010. Now I have to re-configure things (esp. my mail), but all is clean

I tried to get support from MS and they told me to go for #2. I think I'll do that but as I wasn't convinced by the expertise from the support guy, I'm asking this also here... Any thoughts?

[HansV]

Although it's more work, I prefer to perform a clean install when I get a new version. Installing the new version over the older one will indeed preserve your settings, but that includes superfluous and corrupt settings.
You can create backups of files such as Normal.dotm, Personal.xlsb, your Outlook .pst files etc., and restore them after installing the new version.

[JoeP]

If you are not having problems with your current version of Office I recommend you do the upgrade. Unless you change the install folder, Office 2010 itself will be installed in a different folder from Office 2007.

Joe

[DaveA]

When installing Office it never is a "Upgrade", they have all been in their own new named folder.
When a "Upgrade" copy is being installed, then the earlier product needs to be there or have the CD ready for the new upgrade product to be installed.

During the install and a earlier version is found, the installer will ask if the earlier version can be remove andif ones says NO, then you will have both versions installed.

[sobershea]

I agree with Hans - to me a clean-install is better. If you back up your settings files it should make it easier. That being said, when I installed 2007 it was an upgrade that installed over 2003. The upgrade did a fairly good job of transferring my settings and preferences. Have fun.

[ErikJan]

OK, I'm going for the clean install (maybe tonight!).

If I have uninstalled Office 2007, I'm assuming there's a lot of installed updates for Office 2007 as well on my system... will these uninstall as well automatically, should I uninstall these manually or should I just let them be (but I don't like the garbage on my system). I'm assuming a lot of the stuff that required these updates is now included in 2010 which has its own set of updates... What's the use of leaving these on my system??

[HansV]

The updates integrate with the original installation; if you completely uninstall Office 2007, you'll automatically uninstall the updates with it.

[sobershea]

The updates integrate with the original installation; if you completely uninstall Office 2007, you'll automatically uninstall the updates with it.

Hans, thanks for that bit of information. I did not know that.

ErikJan, you are way ahead of me on the clean front because I never even thought of the updates.

Now here's an interesting thing...when Windows Update puts out updates for Office products it has been giving me both 2003 and 2007. Should I let them install or de-select and hide them?

[HansV]

If you currently have Office 2003 plus the compatibility pack for the Office 2007 file formats (so that you can open and save .docx, .xlsx etc.), Microsoft Update will offer you updates for both 2003 and 2007, and you should install both.

[sobershea]

Thanks Hans.

[ErikJan]

Here's my update...

I just finished the uninstall of Office 2007 and the install of 2010. All went smooth. I already like 2010 better than 2007. I couldn't get used to the ribbons, of course 2010 has these even more, but things seem to be more natural in 2010 than in 2007 (I've been working for many, many years with 2003, just upgraded to 2007 a couple of months back, now to 2010).

My settings migrated fine: even though I had uninstalled 2007 and rebooted before installing 2010, Outlook imported my POP3 account and GMAIL account perfectly and also reconnected my InBox and a Personal Folders PST I had.

[HansV]

Good to hear that!

[sobershea]

I am patiently waiting for 10 to be available so I can clean-install it. I'm glad your install went well.

[Carol W.]

I upgraded to Office 2010 Professional Plus about a month ago. I do volunteer work for a number of non-profits. One of them had purchased Office 2007 Professional recently on http://home.techsoup.org/pages/default.aspx and so was eligible to receive an upgrade to Office 2010 at no cost. Good deal!

It installed flawlessly and replaced Office 2007 as the default for all Office programs. I do still have two folders under Program Files| Microsoft Office, Office12 and Office14 so 2007 is not totally uninstalled.

I remarked, after 2010 installed, that it hadn't asked me for a product key. Well, this past Sunday, 6/6, it asked me to activate and supply the product key (which I did) and told me I had four days left to use it in an unactivated state! I would have thought it would have nagged me sooner but all's well that ends well .

[JohnH]

It installed flawlessly and replaced Office 2007 as the default for all Office programs. I do still have two folders under Program Files| Microsoft Office, Office12 and Office14 so 2007 is not totally uninstalled.

Did you get the option of keeping 2007 when you did the upgrade?

I was hoping I could use this route to end up with both 2007 and 2010, but only pay for one. Buy a new machine with 2007, then upgrade to 2010. So I could keep using 2007 most of the time, but start getting to learn my way around the new one..particularly Access.