Windows 7: Access 97 in Win 7 64 bit

I doubt backward compatibility alone is the solution
Access 97 doesn't install very well on XP but it is possible with some hacks.
This is because when they wrote 97 they assumed the computer hard disk would not go above 1MB.
To get it to run on Windows 7 or 8 is like pulling teeth

It probably is possible to get it to install in Windows 7
But once something gets beyond about 3 hacks ...it's time to look for another solution
Unless you only have 1 user. In which case pray they dont get a better job.
Reverse engineering operating systems is not a good idea.
Then again what twit at Microsoft decided to stop me writing to the top of the C drive by default.
Why dont you disconnect the keyboard as well then it definately cant get a virus.

Never write any macros or anything sophisticated in Access
They will change it and all your development time will be lost in the ether.
To be fair this is partly down to the fact Access has to fit in with other database software.
It's far easier to keep Powerpoint and Excel fairly static in structure ...I would imagine
That said ... tried writing an add-in in Excel 2007.
Far easier to write it in 2003 and then reverse engineer.
Could they make it harder?

Hi AlTaylor. I know this is old but do you have info on getting sr2 to install in windows 7
64 bit. I would like to use it with word 97. I know it sounds wierd, but my stuff is
critical and I cannot do a rewrite. I managed to get it to work with win 7 32 bit, but
I want to be able to use more memory.

Thanks
Rasheed

Rasheed

This is what you need to install Access97 in Windows XP 32-bit

"There is no license" error message starting Microsoft Access

Haven't tried it in ages.
Dont know about word but I imagine the same hack works for that too

I haven't done this in ages.
Instead I bit the bullet and converted all my Access files to Access 2003
which can be read in 2007 and 2010

There remains no way to bulk process this using Visual Basic or ActiveX
However, I half solved the problem using a program called "Automation Anywhere"
in which you can record mouse moves and keyboard operations and replay them.
It's a bit fiddly as the process of converting access 97 files doesn't take up a uniform
amount of time ... but I dedicated one PC to it and did it in batches of 50->150 at a time
organising the batches by file size which, of course, can be relatively compared to processing time
and it took it about 2 weeks as I remember.
But it was well worth the investment of time and software.
I believe there is a freebie version of Automation Anywhere too

This is an old thread, but as I looked thru it, I didn't see the solution I use. In case someone still cares, I'll copy something that worked for me:

The full procedure and list of problems overcome is as follows:-

1)Make a custom installation of Office 97 into an Office97 folder selecting only Access and its associated data utilities.
2)The error message CTL3D32.DLL not correctly installed – must be installed in the Windows System Directory can be ignored. Should find it is already in the Windows\System32 directory.
3)If you now run the SR-2b update (SR2bOF97.EXE) for Office 97 it will fail unless you do the following:-
a.create two new temporary folders – say folder97 and foldersavefonts
b.copy the windows fonts relating to tahoma and comic (4 files) from \windows\fonts to foldersavefonts.
c.extract the files from SR2bOF97.EXE to folder97 using Winzip or similar.
d.select the four font files relating to Tahoma and comic and right click to then install these fonts in Windows 7.
e.if you do not do the above the SR-2 install fails because of a version problem with the fonts.
f.now run SR2bOF97.EXE in the normal way. It should be successful – if not the situation is different to mine and the log will need to be viewed to troubleshoot the problem
g.finally go to foldersavefonts and install these fonts back into Windows 7.
4)It is now recommended to run the Jet3 patch Jet35sp3.exe which can be downloaded from Microsoft.
5)At this point you should have a fully working Access 97 system. This procedure should also work for Word, Excel and Powerpoint but not Outlook.
6)Now install Office 2007/10 as required preferably a custom installation into an Office20xx folder.
7)If you have installed Access 20xx there will be a conflict between the Access 97 and 20xx installations. Both version work fine (ignore the message to rerun setup) once loaded but Access 97 will need to be run with Administration permissions (right click the short cut and click administrator) after running Access 20xx. In a similar way Access 20xx will rerun its registration processes after running Access 97. This situation occurs whenever you move between the versions unless you follow the following steps.
8)Load Access 20xx to ensure that it is registered.
9)Use notepad to create an empty file MSACCESS.SRG – suggest in folder97
10)find the Microsoft supplied MSACCESS.SRG – this is installed in the folder name specified in the custom install of Office 20xx. Rename this file to MSACCESS.SRG.SAV.
11)Copy in the empty MSACCESS.SRG from folder97 to replace the correct version.
12)This trick seems to prevent the conflict between Access 97 and Access 20xx. Remember if any reinstall work is needed for Office 20xx to reinstate the Microsoft supplied version.
13)There is a documented problemInstalling Office 97 breaks UAC setting UI in windows 7 relating to a UAC issue but this seems to have been corrected in currently shipped builds of Window 7. If the problem does appear there is a Microsoft supplied fix for the problem. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978591/
14)Finally, in case anyone needs to make a clean start in new folders. I have also found that the above procedures are still repeatable after standard uninstalls of both Office 97 and Office 20xx
15) If ISAM problems occur with txt or .xls files it is likely that the .DLLs need to be manually registered. To do this use the command line and type C:\windows\syswow64\regsvr32.exe c:\windows\syswow64\mstext35.dll. This will register mstext35.dll. Then type:- :\windows\syswow64\regsvr32.exe c:\windows\syswow64\msexcl35.dll. This will register msexcl35.dll