Problem installing 2 versions Office on same OS

[VanS]

Hello,
I need to install two versions of OFfice on the same operating system. I did
so following Microsoft guidelines per KB articles but my Outlook 2003 still
freezes up.
I had unloaded both versions of Office, then installed Office 97 SR1 on my
external drive, then Office 2003 on my main drive. Then I realized I hadn't
installed the SR2 update for Office 97 and installed that. Outlook 2003
seemed to work up to that point, then began freezing up again. So I
uninstalled 2003 and reinstalled it just to be sure, but it still freezes
up-even when it tries to open up in Safe Mode-shows the app is "not
responding" in Task Manager.
Any ideas what could be wrong or how to fix?
Thanks, blessings
Van

 

[Jonathan West]

As far as I'm aware, it is just about impossible to have two versions of
Outlook coexist.

if you must try and run two copies of Office on the same machine, then you
need to invest in a program such as VirtualPC in order to create virtual
machines into which the different versions of Office can be installed
without being aware of each other's existence.

 

[VanS]

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your reply.
In my configuration I only have one version of Outlook-2003. And for Office
97 only Excel, Word and Powerpoint. Microsoft documentation-eg KB
828956-indicates that while Microsoft doesn't recommend it, you can run
multiple versions of Office on the same operating system-but only one copy of
Outlook which I have done.
I have I believe followed MS guidelines but my system still freezes up in
Outlook so I'm baffled at this point.
Thanks, God bless
Van

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your reply.
In my configuration I only have one version of Outlook-2003. And for
Office
97 only Excel, Word and Powerpoint. Microsoft documentation-eg KB
828956-indicates that while Microsoft doesn't recommend it, you can run
multiple versions of Office on the same operating system-but only one copy
of
Outlook which I have done.
I have I believe followed MS guidelines but my system still freezes up in
Outlook so I'm baffled at this point.
Thanks, God bless

Let's take a step back. Why do you want to have two versions of Office
installed?

 

[VanS]

Hi Jonathan,
I have a VB6/Office VBA application I have developed and in order to make it
backward compatible with earlier versions of Office and incorporate those
type libraries I have to build the app in those earlier versions.
At someone else's suggestion I am looking into using virtual machines,
specifically Microsofts Virtual PC to enable creating a virtual OS onto which
I can install another version of Office.
Thanks,
Van

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Jonathan,
I have a VB6/Office VBA application I have developed and in order to make
it
backward compatible with earlier versions of Office and incorporate those
type libraries I have to build the app in those earlier versions.
At someone else's suggestion I am looking into using virtual machines,
specifically Microsofts Virtual PC to enable creating a virtual OS onto
which
I can install another version of Office.
Thanks,
Van

Hi Van,

if you are wanting to control Office from a VB app, it is absolutely vital
that you use separate PCs or use VirtualPC to create separate virtual
machines, otherwise you have no way of controlling which version of Office
your VB6 app will get hold of.

What is more, user machines will not generally have two versions of Office
loaded, so a PC that does have both loaded is an unrealistic test platform.