I solved the problem:

The 2010 RTM leaves a number of files, including mso.dll, in the Program
Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE14 directory. I could tell by
the time stamp which showed a date in January, 2010. I dleetd all of these,
then had the beta do a repair.

All of the applications now work correctly.

"kohnvize" wrote in message
...
I had version 14.0.4734.1000 installed (employer is partner), but it
expired.
I uninstalled without any problem via the control panel, and even followed
the office 2007 manual uninstall instructions afterwards (deleting the
remaining registry keys, after checking that there were no msi packages
left
to unistall, which there weren't).

The install of the beta goes without any problem, but initially every
Office
application would crash upon running. The problem module being 'mso.dll'
which was left over from the RTM install and not deleted by the
uninstaller.
I deleted this dll and had the beta do a repair. Now the applications
start,
but the menu tabs are corrupted as well as all of the various ribbons and
menu text. For instance, there are no 'File' menus, just a tab that says
"Opening" which does nothing when clicking on it.

I uninstalled the beta and reinstalled the expired RTM. The RTM works
perfectly, but is expired.

It would seem that the RTM install makes file modifications that are not
reverted during uninstall, and these changes are not overwritten by the
beta
during its installation, thus creating a kludge of beta and RTM file
versions.

So, how can I cleanly remove the RTM as if it were never on my machine
(including file versions/time stamps), and install the beta and have it
function?

Thank you.