REPOST: XP, 2000 versions on same machine?

[Ed]

I posted earlier about having both the XP and 2000 versions of Word and
Excel on my machine. Jim Cone gave me a huge amount of very useful info.
The very first item, though, was "install the earliest version first".
That's not going to happen - IT updates our computers by simply applying an
image. This image includes the XP version of Office.

With that in mind, is there any extra precautions about installing the 2000
versions of Word and Excel on a machine with the XP versions already there?

Ed

 

[Mike]

Short Answer - install Office 2000, then REINSTALL Office 2002 (Office XP)
....

(I'd probably Uninstall Office 2002 first before installing Office 2000,
though ... )

Make sure that you install the two versions of Office into separate folders
....

HTH,
Mike

 

[Ed]

Thanks for replying, Mike. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening. The
XP versions come with the image. To reinstall them separately wold mean
having to have a separate version, disk, license, whatever (or so I've been
told) for my computer, rather than using just the site license. Sonething
about not being able to install just those components from the image vs. the
entire image.

Ed

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Ed,

You're caught in a Catch-22. Office 2000's installer will replace
newer DLLs with older ones, stomp on some of Office XP's registry
entries, and generally make a mess. If you can't reinstall XP
afterwards, it's going to be a miserable experience.

The alternative -- which is better than side-by-side installation even
when done right -- is to get a virtual machine environment such as MS
Virtual PC or VMWare. Install one Office version in a VM, and the
other in the host operating system or in a separate VM. That way each
Office thinks it's the only one present and they don't conflict. The
catch is that you need a separate license for the installation of
Windows in the VM, which is probably more expensive than licensing
Office.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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[Ed]

Thanks for the info, Jay. I may have to scrap this altogether. IT's not
going to let me install anything "foreign" on my machine (even if I could
afford it!) And I'm not an "official" programmer, so it depends on whether
they want to go to all this trouble to help someone who helps others with
their macros.

Oh, well. Life rolls on.
Ed