Problem installing Office 97 Professional SR2b patch in Vista

[Don]

QUESTIONS:
1. Has anyone figured out how to successfully install the Office 97
Pro Service Release 2 patch in Vista?
2. Has anyone successfully installed an Office 97 Pro CD (SR2
version) in Vista?


DETAILS:
My setup: Dell Inspiron notebook with Vista Business edition
My CD: Office 97 Professional (Service Release 1) Upgrade

I had no problems installing from the Office 97 CD. I ran the
setup.exe file on the CD "as administrator" with no errors.

When I tried to install Service Release 2b (SR2b) patch (again, as
administrator), the installation failed. Scanning the SR2b
installation log, I noticed the following lines that indicated
problems.

At the end of the "Access bucket file copy starts" section are the
lines:

* Move C:\Windows\Fonts\tahoma.ttf to C:\Windows\Fonts\sr1E639.tmp
* Unable to open C:\Windows\Fonts\tahoma.ttf
* sr2 patch fail

Under the following "Back up has started...." section are the lines:

* deleted C:\Windows\Fonts\tahoma.ttf
* unable to restore C:\Windows\Fonts\sr1E639.tmp to C:\Windows\Fonts
\tahoma.ttf
* Backup has finished.
* The patch has rollback the file copy due to either user cancelation
or problem w/ file copy. Your system has been restored to its orginal
state. If you did not cancel the file copy, please contact Microsoft
Technical Support to upgrade to Office 97 SR2.
* The sr2 patch has failed


UPGRADING TO A NEWER VERSION OF ACCESS: I understand that some will
suggest that we "buy a newer version". Besides the huge financial
investment required to upgrade all of our workstations (both hardware
and software/licenses), there's the multiple conversion steps involved
with moving our many Access projects to the newest versions (97 to
2000/2002/2003 then to 2007).
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Offic...ba1c-446a-8ff2-221769a58ba51033.mspx?mfr=true)
I've also read that the later versions of Access are more buggy and
slower than the 97 version.

Office 97 meets our needs and has been working great. I just hope I
can get it to work in Vista (fingers crossed).

 

[DL]

Other posts in this group have suggested that only Office2003 and above is
fully compatible with vista

 

[JoAnn Paules]

I can understand the desire to not spend money and invest the time to
upgrade however eventually they comes a point when software is no longer
functional on new a new OS. Since Office 97 was released, Windows 98, 98SE,
ME, and XP were released. The fact that it continued to work on 4 (combining
98 and 98SE) different operating systems is something that you should be
quite happy about. But now it's time to make a change. Your office software
is over 10 years old and you are doing yourself and your employees a
disservice.

I know you didn't want to hear this but I also know that you suspect this
much already.

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[MadMize]

I disagree with above, if this software was reasonably priced..ie: under
$100, I would upgrade every couple years. But for a company(like MS) who
only seems to upgrade the operating system and programs to make you buy
more of them more often, by making them all incompatable with previous
ones, tends to make me less likely to support this practice by buying
the new ones at way too high of price.
MY ADVICE to anyone who wants to continue using "previous"
programs.....stay away from Vista.
Reinstall XP.