Well,
Thankyou for confusing me with Bill Gates. I'm not, but it was a very nice
thought!
It's not a question of whether I'm entitled to, but a question of why it
won't work
Every time I've had an "Upgrade Disk" I wanted to install, it was a matter of
inserting a suitable CD that the "Upgrade" was looking for (if it wasn't
installed already). In many cases it
does not even have to be a Microsoft Disk! (MS wants to encourage you to
migrate from Corel, for instance, so a Corel disk will do in some cases!).
Regardless, the package tells you, on the side or somewhere, what products
qualify to be upgraded. You must have one of them, either installed or at
least the CD.
Tony already said as much, so I didn't expand on his, in this matter.
I suppose a lawyer in sheep's clothing might argue that the upgrade version
was licensed to upgrade specific versions, but as a practical matter under
....etc...
I didn't follow everything you said, which is my fault of course.
I can only state the upgrade procedure, which is Microsoft's, reasonable if it
works, and I agree with
at least in principle!
An "Upgrade" is for upgrading a version of Office which YOU ALREADY HAVE (you
have ALREADY PURCHASED). Microsoft says, quite rightly in principle, if you
upgrade then stop using the older version!
But from my reading, your Office2007 was purchased separately via the laptop
you got. You are trying to install A2003 on it. Even I can tell that A2003
cannot be an upgrade to A2007! (some wags might say it is!). You can only
upgrade from EARLIER. Einstein's Time Dilation would still not alter the
ORDER. So, to upgrade to A2003, it seems to me you need A2002 or earlier!
(Just the earlier CD will do, so far as I know. It is IRRELEVANT whether or
not A2007 or A5012 is present on your machine!
ALL REPORTS, to the best of my knowledge, say that ALL VERSIONS of Access can
technically co-exist on the same machine. Certainly, Allen Browne's website
reports some "gotcha's".
(how all these versions handle different versions of common dll's I'm not
sure. I personally install each Access on a different machine. But hey, that's
what all the experts say here...different versions of Accesscan co-exist!)
Assuming you can install your "upgrade" of course. Heh-heh.
As a matter of interest, a few random points:
Office 2007 is a "Major Upgrade"! They totally changed Access! I wouldn't be
surprised if there were still some problems with that. As I said, Allen
Browne's website documents some.
"a few points"? well, one point is close enough to a few isn't it?
Install an upgrade according to the rules placed on the package, and complain
to Microsoft if the upgrade didn't work! (We are not Microsoft, we're just
fellow long-suffering users, and "upgrades" have always worked as advertised
for me)(well, for the install, lets not mention more as well as unresolved
bugs in the s/w itself)
Chris