Moving Office 97 to new computer doesn't work

[JAG]

I am consoled (but not encouraged!) to see that I am
obviously not alone with this problem! [DanM; Rick Ergon
and others just in last 2 days]. Could it be that our
hosting Corporation is trying to get us to buy a full
version of Office 2003?

When I started my own business in Dec 2000, I bought an
IBM laptop with Office 97. When I now try to re-install
Office 97 on my new computer using the original disk and
Product ID, I get message from the install wizard saying
that my version of Office is an upgrade [which it was not]
and that it cannot find a qualifying product to confirm my
right to upgrade.

I am - shall we say - intrigued to see that there is
absolutely no help on this in the Microsoft Knowledge
Database.

As my business is not in the IT industry and I dont want
to branch out either!, maybe someone out there more
knowledable than me on these matters knows the answer and
would like to share it with this humble writer ?

Regards

 

[jk]

I don't have the ultimate solution you seek, just a
thought: others here ask about problems using Office 97
with one of the newer versions of Windows. I see on my
Office 97 Pro installation CD-ROM that it was intended for
Windows NT and 95. Could the "qualifying product" that
cannot be found by the setup program be one of the older
versions of Windows rather than a previous version of
Office?