I used Revo Uninstaller. It sure leaves A LOT of stuff behind. At the last minute I didn't go through with removing all that stuff Revo showed. I was afraid there might be something in there I needed so in any event, I've got a lot of junk left from Word on my computer. I'm just getting ready now to install Open Office so hope that goes well. I did set a restore point.
Thanks much!
Hi Nikilet,
Congratulations - it seems like you did it. You don't need to be so afraid of Revo. Yes, if not used properly, it can cause a good deal of harm by deleting the wrong things (unlike some other programs and I've seen people accidentally delete huge chunks of their registry because they clicked at the top of the list instead of only the bold part at the bottom), but properly cleaning up your system is important too. I also use Revo frequently (sometimes not even bothering with the normal Vista uninstall process) and quite typically find a LOT of registry entries that are bolded and need to be removed (I can almost always tell that they are related and do so - the last uninstall I did left 12 behind that I deleted) and other files as well (the last uninstall I did left 263 files and folders behind! I checked and they were all related (pretty much all in the same sub-directory) and so I checked them all and deleted them. Even still, that deleted program (one for getting online assistance from Verizon) just yesterday gave me a popup message saying it wanted to update, so even deleting everything and using Revo, I obviously didn't get it all - I plan to seek out what remains today and get rid of it (I think it's an updater in the startup menu or in task scheduler but those are just my first guesses).
One thing to consider. If you do ever decide to purchase Microsoft Word or a version of Microsoft Office despite having pretty much everything you need in OpenOffice - but not absolutely everything as I do with Office Enterprise 2007 (one thing OpenOffice especially lacks is somthing similar to Outlook and I find that's the program I use the most often of all of them), these files you left behind with Word 2002 may interfere with that installation. That's not a guarantee and in fact it probably won't be the case, but it is possible (so if it ever happens and you have a problem installing, remember this and finish the uninstall with Revo and try the installation again).
I hope OpenOffice went well and that the restore point was not required. Have you tried it yet? Did it update the defaults and file associations automatically as I suspected and hoped?
At one of my former paying jobs, we had to go to every computer in every branch of the company and replace Microsoft Office with OpenOffice (as a cost-saving measure) and I had no troubles that I can recall (it was quite a long time ago). I've always had Microsoft Office and prefer it myself (though I've done the 2010 trial and don't find it worth the money to upgrade from 2007 - thankfully), but if I wasn't such a big Microsoft fan (and not want to lose Outlook), I would certainly switch to the free OpenOffice. It's not exactly the same (things are in different places and such), but it is still a great set of programs and you can't beat that price (and I don't hear about people having a lot of problems with them either - but perhaps they go elsewhere more specialized for such issues).
Anyway, when you consider the issue resolved, you can click in the red/white triangle in the upper right of one of your posts (most use the last one) and type "solved" in the box and submit it. A moderator will notice and a green checkmark will appear next to the thread title. That way everyone will know it is a done deal and not come here trying to offer assistance - and viewers will know that the issue was solved and can check it out as whatever was said or done at least helped one person.
I hope this all helped you.
Good luck and best wishes!
