Conflict running Office 97 SBE with XP SR1

T

tess

I have read most of the chat on this site about the conflicts with these two
programs. I am not clear however that they are the same versions I am
running. The machine has been offline for over a year and was originally
preloaded with XP. The Office is an authorized previous purchase. I have
reinstalled the platform so the machine is very clean (except for some
preloaded, really useless E-Machine stuff) I am having the following problems
with Word.
1. The window is "faded out" particularly in the bottom right. Hard to
look at.
2. It is not very responsive-i.e.-sometimes it just does not want to save,
close, get rid of the assistant-almost like it is locked up-I have had to end
the program at times.
3. It only shows up as a program option for one user (the account that it
was installed on)-I have them all set for admin.- as this was a suggested
fix, but it is not working.
4. When I check it out in "add/remove programs" it shows that Word has not
been used since 2002.
5. Just a general pain but...No Welcome screen and error message saying I
have installed a program that has eliminated the option though all I have is
the XP preload, Office and a wireless receiver loaded on it.
6. Automatic Update is running-but-that now includes Office. How will that
affect? Is it going to try and update my Office 97 and if so, is that really
a good thing?
7. Is there an upgrade out there for the Office 97-short of buying a whole
new suite?
I know these are lots of questions, but I would appreciate response to any
of them to get it going in the right direction. If I have to take drastic
steps, I would like to do it before I turn my kids lose. Thanks!
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Tess,

The fading in the lower right corner sounds like monitor degaussing (there may be a switch or menu setting built into the monitor)
or the monitor may have degraded. There isn't an Office setting that would have that occur.

Automatic updates do not include Office 97. For those updates you'd need to manually download and install for that version from
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads Other than the product and Windows updates the only way to upgrade would be to move to a
newer, purchased, product.

In addition to the Office 97 downloads there may be a few updates specific to individual apps within Office 97. The Add/Remove
program dates for Office 97 may not update when applying updates as the Office 97 program uses an older setup program.

Unless it was installed for all users as a machine install it will only show up for a single user if the profiles already existed
when you installed. If I recall correctly the per machine install may not be built into the Acme Setup program that Office 97 used,
if this is an OEM or retail copy of Office 97.

You may want to look at Start=>Programs=>Startup and also use Start=>Run MSConfig.exe to see how much 'stuff' is set to run
automatically at startup. Some of the 'preinstalled' software tends to be there when you may not need it and reducing the available
RAM can slow things down. You may also want to run Disk Cleanup from Start=>Programs=>Accessories=>SystemTools then restart the
PC.

If you don't have a lot of RAM (memory) on the PC then items like the Assistant being turned off may also help speed things up a
bit.

I'm not sure I'm understanding #5. Are you referring to an Office 97 app starting or to starting the PC and a Welcome screen from
Windows?

=================
I have read most of the chat on this site about the conflicts with these two
programs. I am not clear however that they are the same versions I am
running. The machine has been offline for over a year and was originally
preloaded with XP. The Office is an authorized previous purchase. I have
reinstalled the platform so the machine is very clean (except for some
preloaded, really useless E-Machine stuff) I am having the following problems
with Word.
1. The window is "faded out" particularly in the bottom right. Hard to
look at.
2. It is not very responsive-i.e.-sometimes it just does not want to save,
close, get rid of the assistant-almost like it is locked up-I have had to end
the program at times.
3. It only shows up as a program option for one user (the account that it
was installed on)-I have them all set for admin.- as this was a suggested
fix, but it is not working.
4. When I check it out in "add/remove programs" it shows that Word has not
been used since 2002.
5. Just a general pain but...No Welcome screen and error message saying I
have installed a program that has eliminated the option though all I have is
the XP preload, Office and a wireless receiver loaded on it.
6. Automatic Update is running-but-that now includes Office. How will that
affect? Is it going to try and update my Office 97 and if so, is that really
a good thing?
7. Is there an upgrade out there for the Office 97-short of buying a whole
new suite?
I know these are lots of questions, but I would appreciate response to any
of them to get it going in the right direction. If I have to take drastic
steps, I would like to do it before I turn my kids lose. Thanks!
--
tess>>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
Top