Adobe 8 & Outlook 2002

Caveat on Adobe 8 - over the last few days I have had a lot of problems (mainly the dreaded blue screens) which are related to the latest version of Adobe that I downloaded about a week or so ago.

After three or four days I think I've finally cured the Adobe problem by uninstalling Adobe 8 (needed multiple attempts - it didn't want to go) & going back to a copy of an earlier version that I had on some other software.

Additionally Outlook 2002 has now started to cause problems (don't know if there is any link to the Adobe problem) - the reporting system to Microsoft came back with a response saying that since July 2006 Office 2002 no longer has full support and their only recommendation or suggestion was to upgrade to the latest office product - the ******* sell you a product that doesn't work properly and then tell you to buy a new version (which won't work properly either) to fix it.

Rant paused - for the time being

Irish Alan wrote:........ What exactly is happening with Outlook?

From memory (mine) I got a message something like:

"Outlook has encountered a problem and has to close down"

A "box" then appeared offering to send a report to Microsoft which I sent and the advice returned was upgrade to a new version as full support is no longer available; the Outlook window then disappeared but without blue screening, on reboot everything appeared normal.

This has occurred a few times now with both Outlook and Excel.

Putting my conspiracy theory hat on, it makes me wonder if Microsoft built in some kind of timebomb into their software to make you buy their next release, however given all the flaws and vulnerabilities in their products why would they need to build in any kind of timebomb?

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I would add this bit about a response from Microsoft following a "Word" crash:

Windows Error Reporting

Problem caused by Microsoft Word 2002: consider upgrading

The problem was caused by Microsoft Word 2002, which was created by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Word 2002 is in its "Extended Support" phase. This phase of support for Microsoft Word 2002 began on July 11, 2006. Only security-related solutions are created by Microsoft for this version of Microsoft Office.

Recommendation --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Consider upgrading to the latest version of Microsoft Office to receive full support. Go online to learn how to upgrade.

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My reply:

QUOTE "Problem caused by Microsoft Word 2002: consider upgrading"

How about a little product integrity by fixing problems on existing faulty software before trying to sell new even more complex software with no guarantee that it does not contain even more faults?

Given that the (unidentified) "problem" was caused by Microsoft, your simplistic solution of me just spending even more money with Microsoft does not fill me with any confidence that I won't have exactly the same or even worse problems with upgraded software.