Starting Access 97 in Win XP

[Pete Dee]

When I try and open Access 97 in XP I get the
message 'can't find the database you specified, or you
didn't specify a database at all' even though I am trying
to start Access.

 

[MacDermott]

Are you sure you have a full version of Access?
It sounds as if you may have a run-time version, which can't be opened by
itself; you must specify a database.

HTH
- Turtle

 

[Penny O'Neill]

I'm having the same problem. I do know, however, that
Access 97 needs to be installed with any virus protection
turned off. I did try to run Access 97 by opening an
existing Access 97 database. While I don't get the "can't
find..." message, it doesn't open the database, either,
and the only options under FILE are close and exit. I've
made a couple of attempts to uninstall Access 97, turn off
virus protection, and reinstall it. After these actions, I
still have the same problem.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Penny O'Neill]

I got Access 97 to work on XP. I did have my virus
protection turned off during the process (not sure if it
makes a difference, but the Access 97 readme file says to
do so). According to some of the knowledge based articles
I found on the MSDN website, an obscure font in the fonts
folder can make Access 97 misbehave.

Hopefully, the following steps are sufficient instructions:
1. Uninstall Access 97 (or in my case, I uninstalled the
whole kit-n-caboodle of Office 97).
1.5 Turn off virus protection (according to Access 97
readme file).
2. Go to the Fonts folder under the Windows folder.
Right click on the folder and select properties. Unselect
the read-only option so you can modify files in the fonts
folder.
3. Find the "hatten.ttf" file in the Fonts folder and
rename it "hatten.ttf" to "hatten.old" or something else.
4. Reinstall Access 97 (or in my case, Office 97). One
thing that was also noted in the various problem writeups -
if you have other versions of Office installed on your
computer, then be sure to use a different name other than
the default installation folder, i.e. "Office97" instead
of just "Office". Otherwise, you can inadvertently
clobber other things that are working and files can get
overwritten because of common directories.
5. Turn your virus protection back on and reselect the
read-only option on the Fonts folder under the Windows
folder.

Access 97 should start for you . It did for me with
this procedure on XP home.