Running Office XP and Office 2007

[Warren]

At the moment at work we are looking at running Office XP and Office 2007
together on the same PC. This is so that users familiar with Office XP can
still use it, and those who want to use 2007 can do so, it will probably be
for a considerable transition period.

However, no matter which way you install both versions of Office (doing the
Microsoft way of XP first then 2007, or installing 2007 then XP so that
double clicking files opens them in Office XP) there's some pretty serious
problems.

If you open Word XP, all seems well. Then if you open Word 2007, Office
2007 setup comes up and takes about 10 minutes to "configure" Office before
Word starts. If you use the same version again, you don't get that delay.
But if I then were to open Office XP, the "Windows Installer is now
configuring Office XP" message comes up and takes some time.

Although other applications within the Office suite do this to a lesser
extent, it's Word that takes ages. Unfortunately it's the one that most
people use, and these sort of delays are just not acceptable.

Is there any way of having Office XP and Office 2007 working without these
"configuring" messages coming up? Both are Enterprise Edition versions.

 

[Peter Foldes]

How was the installation done. As an example was the Office versions installed on the same or different partition . Describe the installation process. Is Outlook installed and what version? There could be only 1 instance of Outlook. We need to know the details .

 

[Warren]

A custom install was used on both versions, installing only the following
components on both (all to My Computer): Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint,
plus any tools, converters and filters.

Both were installed to the default location and on the same hard disk
partition. Outlook wasn't installed as that isn't the standard email client.

 

[Peter Foldes]

To run both versions of Office you need to install them to different folders. If they are installed to the same default location you will obviously have this problem.

 

[Warren]

By default, Office XP and 2007 place their content within subfolders, which
is in the official Microsoft documentation:

Office XP: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\
Office 2007: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 12\

Both suites do run on the same PC, but as I mentioned if you switch from one
to the other (such as Word, which is the biggest culprit) you get either the
Windows Installer configuring office XP, or Office 2007 setup re-setting up
Office despite it being already installed.

I'll try installing one away from the default folder, but to be honest I
think that's already been tried with *exactly* the same result.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Warren,

The installer starting is 'normal' behavior when you run multiple Office versions (a practice MS recognizes but doesn't recommend
<g>)
With multiple versions of Word installed the MS Installer changes the settings to match the correct (last used) version when you
start it. (More information on having multiple versions of Office installed appears here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928091 )

There are a couple of workarounds.

1. Create and use (where the PC has enough 'oomph' to support it, Virtual PC installations to separate the versions
http://microsoft.com/virtualpc

2. Edit the registry to have the installer ignore the 'switch' between versions. While this will stop the installer on a regular
(as you use the apps) basis it's not clear at present what other areas this may affect when switching between Word versions,
including running a repair (Office 2000 thru 2003)/diagnostic (Office 2007) or when updates are applied. Here are the steps on
Windows XP, they may vary slightly in Windows Vista. As a suggestion, you may want to lock things into the version of Word that
matches the version of Outlook you'll be using.

a. Optionally, run either Repair from the Word 2000-2003 help menu
and/or an Office diagnostic from Office 2007 to double check that the 'innards' are in good order.

b. Run the version of Word that you want to have associated with your .doc, .dot, .docx, etc files, then close Word.

c. Double click, in Windows Explorer in My Documents or another folder a .doc file to be sure it opens in the correct version you
prefer to use then close all running Office apps.

d. Use Start=>Run and type Regedit.

e. Navigate down in HKEY_CURRENT_USER to
\Software\Microsoft\Office

f. For Word 2007 (v12.0) continue to navigate through

\12.0\Word\Options

and once there right click on the 'Options' branch in the left panel and create a new 'DWORD' named NoReReg , then set the value
of NoReReg to 1.

g. For Word 2003 (v11.0), follow the same steps as in 2f, but use the area for Word 2003, which would be

\11.0\Word\Options

h. For Word 2002 (v10.0), follow the same steps as in 2f, but use the area for Word 2002 (Office XP), which would be

\10.0\Word\Options

Note that this doees work for Word 2003 and Word 2007 but I don't recall if the 'NoReReg' key is recognized in the Office XP/2002 or
Office 2000 editions.

Please let us know how this goes for you

==================
By default, Office XP and 2007 place their content within subfolders, which
is in the official Microsoft documentation:

Office XP: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\
Office 2007: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 12\

Both suites do run on the same PC, but as I mentioned if you switch from one
to the other (such as Word, which is the biggest culprit) you get either the
Windows Installer configuring office XP, or Office 2007 setup re-setting up
Office despite it being already installed.

I'll try installing one away from the default folder, but to be honest I
think that's already been tried with *exactly* the same result. <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Warren]

Bob,

Sorry for the slow reply, had a couple of important things to take care of
earlier this week.

Just to let you know that adding those registry keys worked perfectly, and
Office XP does recognise that Word registry key too, so that's something to
note.

As a side benefit, none of the other apps now come up "Windows is now
configuring.." plus the associations are associated to Office XP. I'd pretty
much call that a result.

Maybe it's worth updating the knowledge base article with that information?

 

[Warren]

One slight problem still persists though:

MS Access still insists on reconfiguring itself every time XP or 2007
launches. Is there a similar NoReReg key for Access, and if so, where does
it need to go?

Powerpoint and Excel seem okay.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Warren,

Unfortunately there isn't a similar key for Access. Keep in mind that running multiple versions, while explained in a MS article,
isn't a recommended configuration due to issues such as these and the possibility of getting things confused and potential loss of
time and data.

============
One slight problem still persists though:

MS Access still insists on reconfiguring itself every time XP or 2007
launches. Is there a similar NoReReg key for Access, and if so, where does
it need to go?

Powerpoint and Excel seem okay. <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Warren]

Bob,

I did manage to find something out. In Access XP there's a registry key
which is set called "NoRepairNeeded", it's located at:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Office/10.0/Access/NoRepairNeeded

If you run Access 2007, this registry key is then deleted.

However, if you re-add that registry key, and then run Access XP, it does
run without the need to go through the Windows Installer configuration.

The same key does exist for Access 2007 at:

HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Office/12.0/Access/NoRepairNeeded

However, the key stays there and is never deleted, and running 2007 after XP
comes up with the usual "configuring... "screen. Bit frustrating cos I'm
half way there to getting them both to run without that.

Warren.

 

[zoltanorama]

Hy to all...

I recently installed botn office 2003 and 2007 and got the same
problems you described.
I too, tried the NoReReg and the NoRepairNeeded (possible) solutions
and they worked fine, except Access.
The best way that I found to escape form those long lasting and
permanently reappearing configuring windows is this:
I started Access 2007 to be my default app.
then whenewer I start it there is no reconfiguring needed.
Then when I start Access 2003 (it wants to reconfigure, but) when I hit
the Esc button it just goes away and the Access 2003 app. starts without
having to wait those extra seconds.
As I stated earlier Access 2007 is my default app.

I hope it`ll work for you as well if you don`t allready use it yourself


bye all