Microsoft Works 9 On Windows 7

I found some articles claiming you can install Microsoft Works 9 On Windows 7. Is this possible?

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Well, yes, I just did it. Pretty cool. Nice calendar, word processor etc. I used it many years ago with our first computer, Windows 95/98. I used it for documents. So neat to have the latest version up and running.

To install it, I used this site to get the archive: How to Install Microsoft Works on Windows 10 or 11

After downloading the iso file, I couldn't get to open, so I extracted it. It still would not install, but did tell me to run "setup.exe." I found that in downloads, and that did it, the wizard opened and I installed it.

In addition to the word processor, it has a spreadsheet and database. I know that these are not up to today's standards, but it still has enough functionality for causal use. and of course there is the nostalgia aspect, which for me at least is very enjoyable. I'm now wondering if I could get Greetings workshop, Encarta and the other software that came with that old Gateway working. I still have all the CDs.

I just installed Encarta Virtual Globe. That also works. This is crazy!

Back in 1996 I needed Word 95 for school. The cheapest way to buy Word 95 was to first buy Works 3.0 and then get a discount for Word 95. I used both Works and Word for a few years.

I think I remember when I bought Office 97 I found it couldn't read Works 3.0 files. That put an end for Works being useful so I uninstalled it.

I just happened to have a copy of Works 9.0 that I found online. Out of curiosity I installed it on my laptop with Windows 11 Pro. It installed OK.

Works 9.0 was released in 2007 the same years as Office 2007. Since that was a couple years before Windows 7 came out it makes sense that it would work with Windows 7.

Well, I've succeeded in also installing Word 97, Money 98, Greetings Workshop (wife very happy about that one), the Puzzle Collection, Bookshelf and Publisher. I couldn't install Encarta, apparently because it was 16 bit. Also, Quicken wouldn't install. I used to make cards with Greetings, now I can do so again, all without having to go online. With the price of cards these days, it's worth having!

michael diemer said:

I couldn't install Encarta, apparently because it was 16 bit. Also, Quicken wouldn't install.

Which Quicken version?

I've successfully installed Quicken 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2011, and 2013 on 64-bit Win7. Those were all 32-bit under the hood, but I don't know when the earlier versions switched from 16-bit to 32-bit, so earlier versions may not work, just as you found with Encarta.

dg1261 said:

Which Quicken version?

I've successfully installed Quicken 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2011, and 2013 on 64-bit Win7. Those were all 32-bit under the hood, but I don't know when the earlier versions switched from 16-bit to 32-bit, so earlier versions may not work, just as you found with Encarta.

It's Quicken Basic 98, for "Windows 95, 3.1 or NT 4." Wife said it's too old anyway so I'm not going to worry about it. To be honest, I'm doing all this out of boredom. Although it is cool to have Works, Greetings and Print Artist working on a 64 bit, i5 with 8 GB ram. (We still have the Gateway 2000 machine, with 340MB ram- which maxed it out; a 5.2 GB hard drive, etc. It boots fine and we sometimes like to fool with it. It's neat to re-experience all the bells and whistles Microsoft thoughtfully put in. Like the smiling paperclip on Word 97 - remember that? - and the barking dog on Greetings Workshop, that high-tails it stage-right when you close the program. The good old days, when Microsoft employed people with imaginations, a sense of aesthetics, etc.).

For really old programs that won't work on Windows 7 you could create a virtual machine of the appropriate version of Windows.

MisterEd said:

For really old programs that won't work on Windows 7 you could create a virtual machine of the appropriate version of Windows.

Thanks Ed. I fooled with virtual machines enough to realize I really didn't care for them. It's like using Wine on Linux. It works, but you have to make quite an effort, and there's always something that gets in the way at some point. Better to use your operating system straight up, that's how it was meant to be used. I went so far with Linux as to set up for my music composition. Had to use Wine, a VST converter for every Virtual instrument/effect; put my ilok licenses on the cloud, as dongles don't work on Linux; etc. It did work, but I couldn't use all my inst. libraries; there were frequent crashes; and I eventually stopped updating Mint, so it wouldn't break things. So I went back to Windows 7, where everything works perfectly, my projects load 5 X faster, no crashes, etc. No updates, either, except for Simplix, if I want to continue with that. Probably better to just keep things as they are, keep it offline by default, etc. Freeze it in time. Wish I could do the same for my brain...

Another tip for installing Microsoft Works: Download WinCDemu. After downloading, use it to mount the iso. Then you can access the exe. file.

WinCDEmu - the easiest way to mount an ISO. And more...

I really like Works. Especially the calendar. Windows update even found an update for it, which I installed. I'm not going to bother installing Free Office, which is what I usually do. Sometimes old, while not being better, can be just as good, or good enough.

The default file type for Works is "wps". I don't know of any other program that can open this. If you want compatibility with everyone else then save the documents as "rtf".

MisterEd said:

The default file type for Works is "wps". I don't know of any other program that can open this. If you want compatibility with everyone else then save the documents as "rtf".

Thanks for the tip. I did also install Word 97, and the system also has Wordpad of course. Yesterday I opened an old document, and something came up called an XML converter. It rendered the document suitably. I can't remember, however, whether I opened it in Word, Wordpad or works. I'll need to do some more investigation on this.