How Many Versions of Office Can be Installed and Used on One XP SP3 Workstation?

[Stewart Berman]

I need to be able to use:
Office 2000 Pro
Office XP Pro
Office 2003 Pro
Office 2007 Ultimate

Is it possible to install all of them on one Windows XP Pro SP3 workstation without them stepping on
each other?

 

[DL]

Install earliest version first, Office2k, install this to a version specific
folder, omit the installation of Outlook
Then run MS Update
You may wish to ammend shortcuts to be version specific

Repeat the process with next version, allthough by default later versions
install to a version specific folder, Without installing Outlook

Finally install Office 2007 including Outlook (If required)

 

[LVTravel]

Install earliest version first, Office2k, install this to a version
specific folder, omit the installation of Outlook
Then run MS Update
You may wish to ammend shortcuts to be version specific

Repeat the process with next version, allthough by default later versions
install to a version specific folder, Without installing Outlook

Finally install Office 2007 including Outlook (If required)

DL is correct but one further thing needs to be done and that is changing
the registry to prevent Word from reconfiguring each time you switch between
Word versions. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928091/en-us

While all the information is good here, see specifically that about 1/2 way
down the page for Word.

 

[Stewart Berman]

DL is correct but one further thing needs to be done and that is changing
the registry to prevent Word from reconfiguring each time you switch between
Word versions. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928091/en-us

While all the information is good here, see specifically that about 1/2 way
down the page for Word.

Thanks. The article is very helpful. However, it says:

Multiple versions of Word
If you have two versions of Microsoft Word installed on the same computer, you experience a
delay when you start Word 2007. This behavior occurs because Word 2007 auto-registers
itself on the computer.

You can bypass the auto-registration. This enables Word 2007 to start faster. However, we do
not recommend this because Word may not function correctly if it cannot auto-register
itself.

The last sentence says bypassing the auto-registration can cause Word 2007 to fail.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Then follow the advice given by DL and select Custom install on all versions and
make sure you do not select Word and Outlook except on Office 2007

 

[LVTravel]

Thanks. The article is very helpful. However, it says:

Multiple versions of Word
If you have two versions of Microsoft Word installed on the same computer,
you experience a
delay when you start Word 2007. This behavior occurs because Word 2007
auto-registers
itself on the computer.

You can bypass the auto-registration. This enables Word 2007 to start
faster. However, we do
not recommend this because Word may not function correctly if it cannot
auto-register
itself.

The last sentence says bypassing the auto-registration can cause Word 2007
to fail.

It does say that. I have multiple versions of Office on different systems
and have never had a Word session fail that could be traced to the registry
fix. I have done the registry fix for Word 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007. All
start fairly fast and don't crash on my systems even with large complicated
files. However, YMMV as Microsoft wouldn't have put that warning there if
they did not have an issue at some point.

 

[Stewart Berman]

Got everything installed:
Office 2000 Pro <w/o Outlook>
Office 2002 Pro <w/o Outlook>
Office 2003 Pro <w/o Outlook>
Office 2007 Ultimate <w Outlook>

Cycling through Windows Update was painful. Had to do it a few times for each version as some
patches don't show up until prior patches are installed. Everybody seems to be working.

 

[DL]

Glad to hear your good to go

Got everything installed:
Office 2000 Pro <w/o Outlook>
Office 2002 Pro <w/o Outlook>
Office 2003 Pro <w/o Outlook>
Office 2007 Ultimate <w Outlook>

Cycling through Windows Update was painful. Had to do it a few times for
each version as some
patches don't show up until prior patches are installed. Everybody seems
to be working.

 

[Stewart Berman]

The only problem -- and it is more of an annoyance - is that whenever I switch versions and go back
to 2007 the particular product goes through what it says is an installation but is probably just
resetting registry entries.

A work around for this in Word was mentioned elsewhere in the thread but I would rather wait the 15
or 20 seconds than bypass the re-registration.

 

[DL]

Yes that is a known issue, I believe one of the other posts in this thread
mentioned the registry fix