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I just got done trying to uninstall Office 2007 Beta 2 on my WinXP Home system, since I just received my Office 2007 retail software. When I tried to uninstall, it gave me a "Error 1402, cannot open registry key UNKNOWN/.xlb/PersistantHandler" blah blah blah message. It rolled back the uninstalling it had already done and quit.

I googled this error and found a couple of things, but nothing specifically related to my situation. Finally, I just used my noggin and with my safety goggles on, I opened up the registry.

I searched for ".xlb" (without the quotes), and it came up with an entry in HKLM/Software/Classes/.xlb . I went up to "Edit" and then "Permissions," and found that somehow, the Administrators had lost control of that entry. So I clicked on "Full Control" for the Administrators, and clicked Ok. I went through the rest of the .x entries and did the same with them, just to make sure that would take care of the problem.

And wah-lah. Office 2007 Beta 2 is now uninstalled successfully. I hope that helps someone else.

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Member Avatar for johnny_zone

Have you tried the manual running of uninstaller? You can find that here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218/?

I did notice that article earlier, but that describes if you've already uninstalled the beta version, and the uninstall didn't delete those files that got left behind. In my case, the uninstall of the Beta 2 wouldn't actually proceed. It would get to the end, give the 1402 error, and rollback the changes it did. But once I gave the Administrators group permission to change those registry entries, the uninstall of Beta 2 went through just fine.

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