Microsoft’s PowerPivot v2 Issue

New Version of PowerPivot V2 for SQL Server 2012 has been released.

And since not everyone knows that “2012 RC0” means “test version that won’t work with your servers, or anyone using v1” and that “2008 R2” means “version 1, the one you need for production environments,” well, this could still use some serious clarification.


That’s not a big deal except for:

1. The release candidate likely isn’t as stable as the most up-to-date release of PowerPivot v1
2. Workbooks created in v2 CANNOT be opened by v1, and that includes v1 server!
3. There is no way to “downgrade” a v2 workbook to v1, so if you want to use a v2 workbook on v1, you have to start over

So be careful – v2 is awesome but using it unknowingly may have side effects you didn’t expect, at least until v2 is official released and the rest of your organization upgrades.
I’ve notified MS of this problem but so far they haven’t fixed it. Both v1 AND v2 should be available for download, with v1 the default, and both clearly marked.
If you want to download v1, here is the link:

V1 PowerPivot for Excel – Download Here