Some workarounds run afoul of the law of unintended consequences.

Yesterday's tip about installing the proofing tools is one of those workarounds - after you install the proofing tools from an earlier version of Office then try to install an add-in under the Genuine Advantage program, the proofing tools may cause the add-in installation to fail because it's not activated. If it's a must-have add-in, either install the proofing tools from Office 2000 (no activation required), a 3rd party spell check program or uninstall the proofing tools, install the add-in then reinstall the proofing tools.

While it's annoying (ok, it sucks!), many users may never have a problem, as they won't install add-ins. For example, I've been using Office 2003's proofing tools in OE for several months, but only discovered these issues week, after I got a new laptop for Christmas and tried to install the calendar printing assistant
(http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2006/20060927.htm) to check for a problem a user reported.

Also note that if you install the proofing tools after installing Office 2007, you should run Office diagnostics, just to be safe. I ran into 2 minor issues if the Office 2007 install is not repaired: the Start menu icon does not work as expected and templates may not open if you double click on them in Windows Explorer. There may be more...

Windows update will probably want to install updates for the older version of Office. These can safely be refused since you only have the proofing tools installed, but the update service doesn't know this; like Genuine Advantage, it only knows you have something from that version installed.

At some point in the future, Microsoft may or may not release a standalone installation of the proofing tools to fix this issue, until then, there are a number of 3rd party spelling tools available, such as OE2.1 Spell checker
(http://www.majorgeeks.com:80/download.php?det=2952) if you don't want the hassle.