Weird Microsoft Office files

[huffman]

I have Win 7 on one hard drive and Win XP on a second hard drive. I can boot to either and have access to both drives. This allows me to not to have duplicate files for each operating system.

I have MS Office 2003 installed on both Win 7 and Win XP. Over the years I have generated several hundred word.doc and excel.xls files. Here comes the weird part .

I rarely now boot into Win XP and at times I want to update my word or excel files in Win 7. When I open either .doc or .xls file, they open as "read only". I have checked the options in both programs neither are set to open as "read only".

I can edit the files but when I go to save them, the only way it will save is "Copy of". This is a pain.

If I boot into Win XP and try to modify these files, it does not matter which OS was used to generate the file, I can edit and save normally. This sort of tells me that it has something to do with Win 7, but I am not sure what it might be.

I was hoping someone may have some insight into how to get around this.

Thanks.

 

[Lasy B]

Have you downloaded and installed the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack?
There is also a Microsoft Office Compatibility Service Pack 1.

 

[huffman]

Thanks for the reply.

I can see where Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack can be of use as it allows you to Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the Open XML file formats, which were introduced to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint beginning with Office 2007 and continuing with Office 2010.

It is also supported by Windows 7.

As far as Microsoft Office Compatibility Service Pack 1, it is for security and is supported by Windows Vista, but NOT Windows 7.


Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack can at least uninstalled but before trying it I need to make an Acronis Image just in case. I will give it a try. Would be nice to have if someone sends me a document not created by Office 2007 or later.

Thanks again.

 

[Lasy B]

As far as Microsoft Office Compatibility Service Pack 1, it is for security and is supported by Windows Vista, but NOT Windows 7.

That's what happens when you cut and paste a link without reading the blurb!!

 

[huffman]

Microsoft Office Compatibility Service Pack 1

Was already installed, I guess from MS updates.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

This I installed and if it does any good, I will post back.

Thanks for the help