Upgrade from Office 2013 to Office 2007

Only Microsoft can do stupid things like this.

First I was silly enough to buy Office 2013 through my work. It hadn't dawned on me that Office 2013 came out after Windows 8 with it's weird Metro interface that nobody wants to use on a desktop. Since Metro was intended for touch phones and tablets and not full-up computers with graphics cards, it has limited graphics and colors. So Office 2013 follows those limited capabilities for some unknown reason.

I installed 2013 some time last year. The first thing I noticed was that Office 2007 was still installed. Later I found out they shared the configuration and mail files. Of course I also noticed how limited the color choices were in Office 2013. At work we use Office 2010 and I'm comfortable with it. Office 2010 is what I wanted to buy rather than 2013. But, it was no longer available.

I leave my computer turned off for most of the week. I turn it off on Sunday evening and usually don't turn it on until Thursday or Friday evening. This past Thursday I turned the computer on and tried to download and read my email. Microsoft Outlook said there was a problem and I should go into Programs and Features in the Windows 7 Control Panel and repair it. I did this, after which every time I TRIED to start Outlook I got a message saying that Outlook 2013 was busy. Eventually I tried other applications in Office 2013, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, et al., and none of them worked. I Googled the problem and ended up following a link that led to a 'Fix It' link. The 'Fix It' was to uninstall Office 2013.

I clicked the link and hoped it would only remove Office 2013 and leave Office 2007 alone. The fix took many minutes to complete. It sort of did leave 2007 alone. However all the menu selections in Outlook 2007 said they were "not supported". I decided to try and repair Office 2007 in the Control Panel and rebooted for the third or fourth time.

Sure enough Office 2007 is back and working like a champ.  Apparently this was all due to one of two Windows updates that were installed when I shut my computer down last Sunday night.  I now have a more appropriate Office suite for a desktop computer. I did waste money on the 2013, but at least I managed to recover from Microsoft's fiasco.