In this post, I’m going to simply document the process of updating my MIcrosoft Office 2007. As almost anyone knows who has not been hiding under a rock, Microsoft Office 2010 has been in the works for quite a while. I know there are several launch events and formal release events coming up so I don’t mean to imply you can buy it now. If you are on MSDN (Microsoft’s developer network) I believe you should be able to download it now.
You can read about the changes here: http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/
I just downloaded the latest office 2010 professional from MSDN. First thing I notice is that there are now two versions. A 64bit and a 32bit. Thinking bigger is better, I of course elected to download the 64 bit and install that. It’s nice that it is an exe file so I can run it without first having to mount it as an iso. When I do run it, it tells me that I can not upgrade my existing 32bit version and will have to uninstall and reinstall from scratch to do that. My thinking is now that maybe 64bit is not that important to me so I grab the 32 bit version and am installing now.
I’m running a Lenovo W500 with 8Gig of RAM and a solid state drive. It takes about 10 minutes to run the update. The only part of the upgrade I’m concerned about is my hosted Exchange. I’ve got about 2 gig of mail synchronized with the exchange server so I’d prefer not to have to start again. Let’s see how this works out for me. I’m doing this post as I’m doing the upgrade.
… time goes by …
and then…
(good thing I’m using Microsoft’s LIve Writer and can save this locally)
And, after the reboot, I notice that there is a new Office 2010 on my Start Bar and my quick start from the start button is gone. Here is the new start menu choices:
Then, when I run Outlook 2010 for the first time:
I put in my credentials, I get the “Outlook is starting for the first time” (not what I was hoping for), and then a warning about outlook not being my default email program (I thought it was, so I’m just going to say yes).
Up comes outlook along with a normal (not unexpected) set of choices.
for which I say “Use Recommended Settings” (because it has the biggest check box next to it :)).
Now, it seems to have worked. All my email is there without having to download which is nice. It looks a little different. I guess I’ll know in a little while after doing mail if there is anything that surprises me.
Hope this helps!