Office 2003 & 2010 on the same computer

Hi,

Is it possible to have both Office 2003 and 2010 installed on the same computer? (I have licenses for both of them. Some family members prefer the old one, some prefer the new one. That's why.)

If so what are the exact steps to do it? I tried it but 2003 didn't open anymore (it showed error messages)
Also I read updates are not going to work anymore if I do this. Are there any more updates being released for the 2003 edition?


The computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate x86 so it's an x86-only Office (I know it's not possible to mix x86-x64 Office versions but it lets me install 2010 without upgrading the older one)

Also I want to set and keep the older Office as the default handler for all filetypes it supports. How do I do that? 2010 is keep overriding it.

ish4d0w said:

Hi,

Is it possible to have both Office 2003 and 2010 installed on the same computer? (I have licenses for both of them. Some family members prefer the old one, some prefer the new one. That's why.)

If so what are the exact steps to do it? I tried it but 2003 didn't open anymore (it showed error messages)
Also I read updates are not going to work anymore if I do this. Are there any more updates being released for the 2003 edition?


The computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate x86 so it's an x86-only Office (I know it's not possible to mix x86-x64 Office versions but it lets me install 2010 without upgrading the older one)

Also I want to set and keep the older Office as the default handler for all filetypes it supports. How do I do that? 2010 is keep overriding it.

Hi,

You can install and use both Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Office 2003 on the same computer. However, Microsoft Expert do not recommend this.

Note Microsoft does not support by using multiple versions of Microsoft Office on versions of Microsoft Windows that have Terminal Services enabled. If you want to run multiple versions of Office, disable Terminal Services.

ish4d0w said:

Hi,

Is it possible to have both Office 2003 and 2010 installed on the same computer? (I have licenses for both of them. Some family members prefer the old one, some prefer the new one. That's why.)

If so what are the exact steps to do it? I tried it but 2003 didn't open anymore (it showed error messages)
Also I read updates are not going to work anymore if I do this. Are there any more updates being released for the 2003 edition?


The computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate x86 so it's an x86-only Office (I know it's not possible to mix x86-x64 Office versions but it lets me install 2010 without upgrading the older one)

Also I want to set and keep the older Office as the default handler for all filetypes it supports. How do I do that? 2010 is keep overriding it.

It really is best to not install two versions of Office side-by-side in the same instance of Windows. Every time you switch versions of Office that version becomes the default. You could create shortcut for every document, worksheet, etc. that also includes the version of Office to use.

Since you have Windows 7 Ultimate x86you should also have XP mode. You can install one of the veriosn of Offie in XP mode. This will install the other version of office in a separate instance of Windows running XP. This uses Virtual PC to create separate instanmces of Windows.

I am a office developer. I have Office 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2013 all available on one PC. Each version of Office is installed on a separate Virtual PC (VM). This gives me the equivalent of having 4 separate PCs all on one piece of hardware. This avoids any conflicts between versions installed in the same instance of Windows