SOLVED Can I install Office 97 on my W10 machine?

[jpk]

I have an old copy of MS Office 97 and wonder if it will load and run on W10. Any thoughts?

 

[Bighorn]

Might try but don't hold your breath. I do have Office 2000 on a Win10 Notebook but not all things work properly. I'd do a Custom install and leave off Outlook 97, mainly because of problems it was replaced by Outlook 98.

 

[ClippyBeer]

Any reason why you want Office 97 on Windows 10? It's incompatible with newer Office document formats. Even if you did get it to install, have you ever tried explaining to computer novices how to save to older documents formats in newer versions of Office? After too much frustration it was just much easier for me to install a newer version of Office that was compatible with theirs.

 

[brian_mk]

I would imagine it's for cost reasons.

I used Office 2003 under 32bit Windows XP for several years.
Office 2003 also worked fine with 64 bit WIndows 7.

Then Windows 10 came along and broke things...

Some of the Office 2003 programs worked to some extent but certain file operations such as
'File->Open' or 'File->Save As' crashed when the user navigated to 'My Computer'. It's because the interface to the underlying library files changed. This affected both Word and Excel.
Some time later, MS released a compatibility update that fixed the crash.

MS Access 2003 under Windows 10 also threw up a number of issues connected with security and permissions.
Warnings about digital signatures, certificates, trusted CAs etc, etc for Visual Basic code & macros in the database modules.
Warnings that 'access unsafe expressions are not blocked'.
MS Access also reported a couple of missing dlls which I had to copy manually.

The problems with Office 2003 under Windows 10 forced me to get Office 2013. Annoyingly, in Office 2013, MS completely changed the user interface. It took some time to re-learn everything.

IMHO, it's not worth even trying to install an older version of Office such as 97.
Even if you can get it to install under WIndows 10, I'm sure there will be many functions that will no longer work.

 

[T_J]

I'd make a hard drive image before installing any software.
MS Office 2010 security updates end Oct 13, 2020. (my Dell)
I wouldn't buy any software from major website which has many questionable re-sellers.

 

[WestFred]

I've been running Office XP (2002) on my Win 10 PCs without issue. I don't use outlook, access, or powerpoint, but Excel and Word work great along with one of the most useful programs.. Microsoft Photo Editor. Since I'm retired, all the spreadsheets I use and need are in xls format, works as it did with XP.

 

[Bighorn]

As for file compatibility, there is or was a Compatibility Pack [file conversion] download for using the newer format but it was only for Office 2000, Office XP/2002 and Office 2003, allowed using Office 2007 files. I'd heard it was removed from downloading but don't know where to find it now.

 

[Grizzly]

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats 4 (FileFormatConverters.exe) Windows Download

www.download3k.com

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats

Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats for Windows to open, edit, and save files using the new file formats in 2007 versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats has had...

download.cnet.com

 

[WestFred]

Thanks for the links, tomorrow I'm going to download the pack onto my older win 10 test pc, and see how it functions.

 

[Brian Bermingham]

Why don't you just download the free Open Office suite ? You just need to go into the Tools, Options, Load/Save and change the 3 main programs (Text, Spreadsheet & Presentation) in the Document box and then in the Always Save as box, pick Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP, Microsoft Calc 97/2000/XP, and Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP, so that the file extensions will change from the Open Office ones to the Microsoft ones when you save them. I've been using it for 20 yrs with no problems.

 

[Brian Bermingham]

I have an old copy of MS Office 97 and wonder if it will load and run on W10. Any thoughts?

Why don't you just download the free Open Office suite ? You just need to go into the Tools, Options, Load/Save and change the 3 main programs (Text, Spreadsheet & Presentation) in the Document box and then in the Always Save as box, pick Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP, Microsoft Calc 97/2000/XP, and Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP, so that the file extensions will change from the Open Office ones to the Microsoft ones when you save them. I've been using it for 20 yrs with no problems.

 

[Snuffy]

I have an old copy of MS Office 97 and wonder if it will load and run on W10. Any thoughts?

yes, it should run and install with no issue.

 

[jpk]

Ok, I just have the old copy of Office 97 and was wondering if it would work but I do have Libre Office so I really don't need 97. I was just curious. Thanks.

 

[Snuffy]

I see no reason why 97 will not install and work.

 

[BigFeet]

It runs in Windows 10 sandbox. It froze a couple times and I had to force shutdown. But I was able to launch, use and save a word document. I didn't attempt running it in compatibility mode.

 

[Tim Locke]

It is Libre Office rather than Open Office now. Version 6.3 is the latest.

Big spreadsheets with live links and whole book Word docs in chapters may have a few formatting issues but apart from that....

 

[Bighorn]

And OpenOffice is now known as Apache OpenOffice.

Apache OpenOffice - Official Site - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

The official home page of the Apache OpenOffice open source project, home of OpenOffice Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base.

www.openoffice.org

 

[BigFeet]

Libre was forked off OpenOffice when Oracle bought them out I think. I've used Libre quite a bit. I've had a few formatting issue such as docs created in Word not looking great in Libre. But for the most part, there's very few issues.

 

[hotlips28540]

I have Office 97 in my system (Windows 10) and it works great.