Update: Now that the RTM of Office 2007 is out, this blog is obsolete..
We've been using Office 2007 Beta 2 (with the Refresh) for quite some time here in the office with really no problems at all. It's been great.
... however, I just got a new dual core Althlon box and promptly installed Windows XP x64, along with Visual Studio 2005, IE7, FireFox 2, Office 2007, SQL 2005, and all the other usual development and productivity tools.
The big problem with Office 2007 is that Microsoft appears to have taken the Product Activation Web Service offline. This means that I can launch Outlook or Word only a few times before things go kaput. After trying to get things activated for nearly a week, everything finally expired and I couldn't get anything done. Very frustrating.
After much searching and poking around, I figured out how to get things working again. In one of their KB articles, Microsost has published a key (Volume License?) for Office 2007 that doesn't require activation. They even published instructions for swapping out your old key with the new key, and having Office reset itself.
The KB article can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/925098
To Summarize it:
If you're doing a fresh intall, use this product key, as it doesn't require
Activation:
RQCRJ-FCTYM-V3PDF-GRD46-9YHXQ
If you've already installed, then follow "Method 2" in that same KB Article.
Things are a little different is you've already installed, and are running on an x64 (or Itanium, I assume) system. The magic registry key the article fails to mention is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration
Notice the "Wow6432Node" in there. While it's not exactly rocket science, I was scratching my head for a bit trying to figuire out why the keys they're referencing didn't exist.
The good news is that using this KB article, Office 2007 now runs just fine. Well, execept for Project 2007 which has totally corrupted itself and can't be un-installed or re-installed. Ah well. Project schedules are overrated anway! :)