Office 2010 Beta
Q: I'm using the Office 2010 Beta but suddenly nothing works! What happened?
It expired on October 31st, 2010. This was a well-publicized deadling both in the media, on Twitter and was clearly spelled out in the End-User License Agreement for the beta. The product released to manufacturing months ago, nobody should still be using the Beta version at this point anyhow. O.k., lecture over, sorry.
Q: If I upgrade to the released version will I loose all of the documents I created?
No, you shouldn't. Documents, notes, e-mails and files should all be preserved. HOWEVER, it's always best practice before upgrading ANY software (especially beta software) to make sure you have a full, good, tested backup of your data.
Q: I bought Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student Edition to replace the beta but now I can't find Outlook. Where is it?
The Home and Student version does NOT include Outlook. You either need to buy it separately (see below), return Home and Student Edition and see if the vendor you bought it from will let you change to Home and Business, Small Business, Professional or one of the other SKUs that does include Outlook, or reinstall Outlook from your old version (Office 2007?) of Office.
Q: I'm trying to upgrade from the beta but the installer won't run! It tells me something about having a previous version I need to uninstall first! I tried to uninstall, but it won't work!
If you need to uninstall or if you've already tried to and it failed, this article from Microsoft may give you some help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
There is a FixIt tool about 2/3 of the way down the page that may be particularly useful.
Q: But I have the Click-to-Run Version and it won't uninstall! How do I get rid of that?
Use the FixIt tool in the knowledge base article from the previous question (look up). I'm told it will work to remove the Click-to-Run version as well.
If it fails, try going to Start | Run then type "services.msc" and press enter. In the Services dialog find "Client Virtualization" and stop the service. (right-click it). Then try the FixIt from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 again.
Q: I installed the beta, then it expired! I want to go back to Office [2003/2007] but it tells me I've already used all my activations! Am I stuck? Do I have to go ahead and buy Office 2010 now?!?
Not unless you want to. If you try to reinstall an earlier version of Office and it complains that you're out of licenses just use the Telephone Activation option it offers you, call the phone number provided and explain to the representative that you're reinstalling on the same PC because you tried the Beta (or Trial) and decided not to upgrade. As long as it is the same PC that the software was properly licensed on before they'll give you a new activation/product key without too much fuss.
Note: this also works if you're reinstalling due to hardware failure or OS rebuild or just about any other reason. You can also use this step if you're moving from one PC to the other, UNLESS your Office software is an OEM version (i.e. you got it preinstalled on the original PC when you bought it). Read your user license if you're not sure.