Office 97 breaks UAC

[rsvr85]

Windows 7 can do many things well, from multi tasking to providing a stable platform for getting your work done. One thing that Windows 7 can't do is play properly with Office 97.

Microsoft has posted up a knowledge article on its support web site stating that when Office 97 is installed, there is no way to save any changes made to users' User Account Control (UAC) settings . Essentially, having Office 97 installed will break UAC for the user and render it useless.

More...

 

[z3r010]

I dont see how this is news, Office 97 hasn't been supported in years.


Breaking news.......Microsoft Bob doesn't work in Windows 7!!! Industry expert Randul Kennedy declares Windows 7 a fail :sarc:

 

[Gornot]

Are there really people that actually still use Office97? If yes, then LOL

 

[sclausnitzer]

The reality of smaller businesses

The reality of smaller businesses is that they cannot afford to upgrade their software every time a new version of windows is released.

If it works, they will continue to use it. A site or volume license for MS Office 97 may have expired, but as long as the product activation codes work, these companies will continue to use it as long as they can.

If a machine dies, and has to be replaced, then yes, they will put Office 97 on a Windows 7 PC. This will cause security and compatibility issues, but these may take a back seat to saving money, especially in this economy.

 

[logicearth]

The reality of smaller businesses is that they cannot afford to upgrade their software every time a new version of windows is released.....

Sure but doesn't mean Microsoft has to make sure unsupported software is working in proper order...that is why its called unsupported.

 

[Tews]

I dont see how this is news, Office 97 hasn't been supported in years.


Breaking news.......Microsoft Bob doesn't work in Windows 7!!! Industry expert Randul Kennedy declares Windows 7 a fail :sarc:

:roflmao:

 

[PC WhizzKid]

Why not get Office 2003 instead then?

 

[Tews]

If you run any kind of business at all and cant afford to upgrade from Office 97 you might as well close your doors....

 

[GEWB]

Why not get Office 2003 instead then?

It is not always the money - it's productivity that counts. Depending on the tasks, some things in '97 are MUCH more productive than ALL following versions (especially Word).

I would say wipe Win7, install XP then Office 97 - that or live without UAC in Win7.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[GEWB]

If you run any kind of business at all and cant afford to upgrade from Office 97 you might as well close your doors....

Hmm, glad you're not a CFO, especially for a large company. Let's see, how about UPS? I was there last week and they are using Windows 2000. I know of numerous large companies (as in Fortune 500 size) that are using software 6 to 10 years "old" as ROI is more important whan new bells and whistles that 99% of the corporation doesn't need.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[Tews]

Your ROI will soon decrease as your inability to interact with customers is diminished because you fail to keep up with their level of technology... depending on 12 year old software to keep up with today's technology is poor business management..plain and simple...

 

[logicearth]

Office 97 does not actually break UAC, it only breaks the settings page. UAC is still active and working you just cannot change it. Now if you read the actual Microsoft Knowledge base there is a fix, a Registry fix.

You cannot change User Account Control (UAC) settings on Windows 7

This issue occurs when Microsoft Office 97 is installed on Windows 7. The installation of Office 97 makes a change to the registry that causes this issue.

 

[Bill]

For all those heartbroken Office 97 fans, you could always run it in XP compatibility mode... haha.

Your ROI will soon decrease as your inability to interact with customers is diminished because you fail to keep up with their level of technology... depending on 12 year old software to keep up with today's technology is poor business management..plain and simple...

Exactly... If you want to keep your ROI up, you have be on top of technology somewhat..

-Bill

 

[sambalayne]

my question: WHO THE HELL USES WINDOWS 7 AND WORD 97 TOGETHER ANYWAY?!

 

[swarfega]

If you must run Office97, why not install it in XP mode if your hardware can support it.

 

[GEWB]

If you must run Office97, why not install it in XP mode if your hardware can support it.

For my line of work there are times when Office97 is a better tool to use than later versions. When those times come up I fire up XP / Office97, get my work done, then off to whatever OS I need/want for other tasks. Ditto for XP and IE6 (used in one of my dev environments).

Regards,
GEWB

 

[CDKJudoka]

We have people here that are still using Access97. All of the other MS Office apps are 2003 and above.

I can't stand the UAC and turn it off before I do anything else in Vista or 7.

 

[WindowsStar]

Office 97, 2000, 2002 (XP), etc.

Note: Office 2002 Enterprise is also known as Office XP Enterprise.

I work for a company that has thousands of workstations. So I can give a bit of background as to why anyone would run Office 97 on Windows 7. It all breaks down to cost. Currently we are deploying Windows 7 with Office 2002 Enterprise (XP). You might wonder why would we do that?? Because Microsoft wants 1.2 million dollars to upgrade to Office 2007 Enterprise. The cost is too high to do that. This is why we skipped Office 2003 Enterprise. We tried using OpenOffice however some 3rd party software we use only works with Microsoft Word (long story). OpenOffice could not be tricked to work with the 3rd party software. Another reason we keep using Office 2002 Enterprise (XP) is because it is the only version of Office that works with some Main Frame Computer software that we purchase for millions of dollars. Yes the company has an upgrade but that costs millions of dollars plus the cost of down time, upgrade time, and the cost of having them come on site to make sure it works. We also HAD (Thank God it is gone) some 3rd party software that only worked with Excel 97 and another software that only worked with Access 97. These companies either went out of business or the upgrades were expensive or the software was custom made for us. It took us years to get all that software out of the system and cost thousands of dollars.

Our software policy has changed dramatically over the last 4 years to require and almost demand that any newly purchase software be web based ONLY. Maintaining software on the local workstation is near impossible and keeping up with the upgrades are daunting.

When you have thousands of computers, hundreds of servers and many many 3rd party software’s with integration to Main Frame, Mid Range and High End *NIX systems making what would seem like a logical and simple change from one version of Office to another is costly and IT resource heavy.

 

[Windows i7 920]

Are there really people that actually still use Office97? If yes, then LOL

Pick any software you like then ask that question and likely the answer will always be yes. With 6+ billion people in the world and being that PCs are relatively new technology, the odds that at least one person using any given program is pretty high.

 

[Windows i7 920]

my question: WHO THE HELL USES WINDOWS 7 AND WORD 97 TOGETHER ANYWAY?!

Nobody who has any sense of the word COMPATIBILITY anyway. Old + new = ...lets just say that doesn't usually work out too well.