Can't uninstall Microsoft Expression Web

		beta! (we welcome your feedback)
TeleportJobs home	Webmaster Tools	faq	register	login

Microsoft Expression Web Beta won't uninstall!

This is really more of a tip than a tool for Webmasters out there that are beating there heads against a wall trying to uninstall Microsoft's Expression Web Beta version before installing the licensed version. I bring this to you because I went through this recently and thought that I'd share the solution that worked for me in hopes that I can spare the headaches.

Notice - Try this at your own risk. This solution worked for me. We accept no responsibility for damages that may be caused by using this solution. You may want to create a restore point, pack up your files, and registry prior to performing any changes.

I thought that I would start out first by telling you what I learned. You may already know some of these things but this is what I know:

You must uninstall ANY Office 2007 Beta components prior to installing a released version of a 2007 Office component or Expression Web.
Expression Web Beta does NOT want to uninstall using the traditional method of uninstall. It tries to uninstall but then rolls back when almost complete.
There isn't a definitive answer for the solution. What I'm about to share worked for me.

When Expression Web didn't uninstall I went searching for a knowledge base on Microsoft's site that showed how to uninstall EW manually. I came across a Knowledge base article that had a toll that uninstalls installer packages if this makes any sense. I read in another forum that someone had used this prior to manually uninstalling EW. I downloaded this tool selected the EW Beta program and removed the installer package. (I'm not sure that this was the right thing to do but I did it. Uninstalling the installer package of course rendered the usual method of uninstalling useless.)

I then continued to search for a specific knowledge base article that would tell me how to remove EW Beta manually with no success. I did come across KB article 928218 entitled: "Error message after you remove the Beta release version of a 2007 Office suite or program and then try to install the original release version of a 2007 Office suite or program: 'Office is unable to proceed'"

This didn't specifically address EW Beta but it sounded reasonably close to the problem I was having so I read it over. There are 3 methods that Microsoft recommends to uninstall 2007 Beta components or programs. They are:

Method 1: Remove all beta release versions of 2007 Office products and components.
- No Kidding. This is what I was trying to do. Their first step recommends that you try the uninstaller. Obviously this did not work. So I went on to method 2.
Method 2: Remove the beta release version of 2007 Office Windows Installer files and registry entries. There are 2 sections in this step:
- Remove the installation files and stop the 2007 Office services.
- Remove the beta release version of the 2007 Office registry subkeys.
Method 3: Temporarily disable antivirus programs and services.
- I tried this first and it didn't make a difference. However; It is always recommended that you do this prior to installing new software. Antivirus programs typically don't like anything writing to the registry.

Since method 1 & 3 didn't work I tried method 2 (Remove the beta release version of 2007 Office Windows Installer files and registry entries.) Let me preface this with the fact that I tried section 1 of method 2, tried to re-install Expression Web, and it worked. I did not move on to remove the registry subkeys.

Method 2: Remove the beta release version of 2007 Office Windows Installer files and registry entries.

At his point I suggest that you refer to and print out Microsoft's knowledgebase article 928218. I will simply interject some of the things that I came across when following this method.

I performed method 2, section 1 (Remove the installation files and stop the 2007 Office services) items 1 through 6 without a problem. When I came to item 7 I found four installer programs with Microsoft Office product_name 2007 beta. These were:

39A2FD Microsoft Office shared MUI 2007 BETA
39A2C0 Microsoft Office proof (Spanish) 2007 BETA
39A2D0 Microsoft Office proof (French) 2007 BETA
39A2D7 Microsoft Office proof (English) 2007 BETA

I also found the following 2 installers related to Expression Web:

39A304 Microsoft Expression Web Designer MUI (English) BETA 1
39A332 Microsoft Expression Web Designer BETA 1

I followed the instructions to remove the above installer programs. When I got to step 9 I was asked to put in the FrontPage installation disk. Yes you read that right. The FrontPage installation disk. It was looking for the FP.MSI installer package. I didn't question it. I just popped it in and this seemed to quench the thirst of my PC.

Item 10 instructs you to stop the Office Source Engine. My Source Engine wasn't running.

After item 11 I moved on to method 2, section 2. (Remove the beta release version of the 2007 Office installation files and folders.) I performed items 1 through 7 as instructed with nothing out of the norm. When I got to item 8 you are instructed to remove 2 files:

normal.dotm
normalemail.dotm

I did not find normalemail.dotm but I did find the other file so I deleted it.

Items 9 & 10 instructed me to find the document building blocks folder and delete the building blocks.dotx file. I did not find this folder or file.

Items 11 through 13 instructed me to delete all of the temporary files in the %temp% folder. I was able to delete all of the temporary files with the exception of one executable.

I performed the remainder of the items without a problem, restarted my computer, disabled my antivirus and firewall, and then tried to re-install the licensed version of Expression Web.

Success! I did not move on to removing the registry subkeys.

Well. This wraps up what worked for me when trying to tackle another one of Microsoft's conundrums. Hopefully you'll find success as well.