Like most people with a home to go to, Sneak typically finds life too short to bother with ReadMe files before installing new software. There is an exception to this rule of thumb, however: just as you wouldn’t blindly gargle with every fluid found in the bathroom, so it pays to check the label before installing Microsoft beta software.

So when Sneak recently installed the Beta 2 release of Office 2007, it seemed sensible to take a quick snoop through the ReadMe to check for known issues and incompatibilities.

The ReadMe.htm file on the install disk, however, turned out to be a very small file that did little but point to a page on the Microsoft web site. Sneak is perplexed by the need for this, but perhaps this is a cryptic way of telling users that they need internet access in order to install Office 2007?

Unfortunately, the page that the ReadMe links to sniffily reports that Sneak is “not a 2007 Microsoft Office Beta release user”. And it can tell because “the 2007 release was not detected”.

In other words, Microsoft insists that beta testers install Office 2007 before they are allowed to view the ReadMe detailing the problems they may run into during installation of the beta.

And they wonder why nobody reads the ReadMe files.

07 Jun 2006