Error msg - "A required .DLL file ..." Help!

[Steve]

Suddenly, I'm getting the error message when trying to open up my Excel
program (from MS Office 97 professional edition), "A required .DLL file,
MSO97.DLL, was not found." What does this mean, and how can I resolve this?
I was just using excel the other day! I did install McAfee Virus Scan
yesterday ... could this have destroyed something? But I did reinstall, so
that should have replaced any missing files, right?

I tried restarting the computer - nothing. I tried reinstalling MS Office
97 - nothing. Help!!!

 

[Dave Peterson]

You can find lots of hits in the excel newsgroups:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search

I searched for mso97 in *excel* and found lots
http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?as_q=mso97&as_ugroup=*excel*&num=100

And if you finally give up, maybe completely uninstalling first will help:

http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=254250
OFF97: How to Completely Remove Microsoft Office 97 on Windows XP, Windows Me,
and Windows 2000

Good luck,

 

[Steve]

Thanks for the links. I tried the searches via google and didn't come up
with any good advice. One said of a website that you can download a "free
dll file," but the catch is that you have to buy a zip file program to get
it! There's got to be some free way out there! I've totally uninstalled MS
Office 97, and then installed it from scratch. I'm still getting that darned
frustrating message!!! Uugh!

Anyone else?