Yesterday, Microsoft released the Beta2 Technical Refresh of Office 2007, and indicated that it would be free to download from the Microsoft Download Center. The main difference is that you must already have Beta2 installed (vs. removing the previous version).

I installed it yesterday afternoon (directly after downloading). Following completion of the install, I was required to reboot my computer. The first thing I noticed? There is a new theme available. Silver. Woohoo! I was sick of using the Slate Gray theme (it makes everything look darker), and couldn't stand the sky blue theme, so this was a welcome change. Also, since I use the Silver theme in XP, it blends right in.

Second, some of the UI has been changed. It seems like the Office button has been resized (smaller - about half the size it used to be). I still have a problem with my Word in that every time I open a new document, it starts with the zoom level at 10%, but I suspect that is more an issue with my computer, as I can't reproduce it on other computers. I'm also bummed that I apparently still have a problem with Outlook unable to act on mailto: links, but again, I think that's a problem with my computer, because it's not reproducible.

Third, icons (and splash screens) have been changed. They now feature a more updated, modern look, though so far I'm not extremely fond of the splash screen (it appears to be the same basic splash screen for ALL products, with just the name of the product being different

I'll be testing this out for the next while, but so far, I like the other UI changes. I haven't noticed much in the way of change in how the product works, but that could be simply because I am dense... :-)