David Overton's Blog and Discussion Site
This site is my way to share my views and general business and IT information with you about Microsoft, IT solutions for ISVs, technologists and businesses, large and small
David Overton's Blog » Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system

This blog is purely the personal opinions of David Overton. . If you can't find the information you were looking for e-mail me at admin@davidoverton.com. If you want to narrow down the content consider these links:


Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
David Overton's Blog

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

View more

ISV

Developer

Live and SAAS

Small Business Blogs

Business

Home Server

Office Blogs

Windows Vista Blogs and Links

Microsoft Feeds

Useful Blogs of note

User Groups

News

Star Wars

Useful Sponsored Links

Archives

[updated 16:42 9th May 2007 with url for MS Support of this]
[updated 9:45 22nd July 2007 with url to fix for install dialog coming up with word]

I was recently asked in Office 2003 and Office 2007 can co-exist on the same system.  The answer is yes, except for Outlook which as in previous versions get a little precious if this is attempted (it will not let you do this, btw).  You can choose to have them both installed to the same drive or one to an external hard drive, it does not matter.  The key option is when installing Office 2007 is to customise the options and select to NOT uninstall the previous versions.

When you install both copies of Office to be installed on 1 machine that switching between Word 2003 and Word 2007 will result in an install dialog box coming up.  See How to get rid of the installer / configuration dialog when running Office 2007 and Office 2003 on the same system - for Vista and other versions of Windows to fix this.

For more support information, look at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928091 which details the install order and any key requirements

Thanks

 

David

Posted Wed, May 9 2007 2:40 PM by David Overton
Filed under: , , , , , ,

Comments

Mark Schambach wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Wed, May 9 2007 4:01 PM
David: I own Office 2003 Pro and Office 2007 Pro and have them both running on a Vista Home Premium dual core laptop with 2 gig RAM. . I had some problems with Outlook 2007 and called the Office 2007 support people. I was told by the tech support person that Microsoft does NOT support having multiple versions of Office on the same PC. because Microsoft Updates will result in system file incompatibilities and system instability. I have since turned off auto update. Suggestions?
David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Wed, May 9 2007 4:45 PM

Mark,

great question - I have updated the blog post to include a link to the support page that tells you how to do this.  Call back Microsoft and discuss it with them again!

ttfn

David

Vista and old Office | MS-Next wrote Vista and old Office | MS-Next
on Thu, May 10 2007 6:07 AM

Pingback from  Vista and old Office |  MS-Next

Les Fackrell wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Fri, Jun 1 2007 3:12 AM
Is there a way to get rid of the installer whenever you fire up a program from office 2003 and office 2007. Like launching word 03 and then launching word 2007?
David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Tue, Jun 5 2007 9:34 AM

Les,

out of curiosity, which did you install 1st?  Also, if you have a look at the link in the blog post that states the install order and requirements - did you vary from it at all, for example, trying to have both versions of Outlook installed or installing Office 2007 after Office 2003?

thanks

David

Frank wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Thu, Jun 7 2007 2:32 AM

David,

I searched the MS Knowledge base numerous ways trying to find this information and did not even come close.  I gave up, went to Google, and found yours.  Thanks for making this available.

Frank

www.mcsecertificationtraing.net wrote www.mcsecertificationtraing.net
on Thu, Jun 7 2007 4:12 AM

I just consider to apply for the MCSE Certification Exam and come across your site. It is a very interesting post that I will surely recommend to my readers.

Dane Hedrick wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Thu, Jun 7 2007 5:23 AM

David,

I installed the trial version of office 2007 and used it for a month or so with Vista Premium.  I then decided to uninstall it and install office 2003.  The PSTs from 2007 were still there and when I ran Outlook 2003 it picked them up and tried to start.  I then get the following error "Microsoft Office has stopped working", options: "check online for solution and close program" (nothing found) or "close the program".

I have since uninstalled Office 2003 and removed all profiles and even the Outlook folder that held the PSTs.  But reinstalling Office 2003 yields the same error when trying to run Outlook.

Is there something I need to remove to allow Office 2003 to work when reinstalled, Outlook 2003 seems to be the only program that is having problems?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dane

Matt frye wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Thu, Jun 7 2007 4:32 PM
Hi Dave I have an SBS 2003 with Office 2007 installed but am having the WSS - Outlook 2007 issue. I would like to have outlook 2003 can i just uninstall outlook 2007 and install outlook 2003 also any idea if WSS 2 will ever work with Outlook 2007? cheers
David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Thu, Jun 7 2007 5:27 PM
Bruno wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Sat, Jun 16 2007 3:56 PM
Hi. I have a problem with Office 2003 and 2007 on the same system. When I run Word 2003 and then Word 2007, the latter executes Office 2007 setup before it starts, and keeps me waiting for a few minutes... and then, when I run Word 2003, it executes Office 203 setup. Is this normal?
David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Sat, Jun 16 2007 4:10 PM

Bruno,

can you confirm for me that you followed all the steps in the Knowledge Base article linked to in the post above?

thanks

David

Bruno wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Sat, Jun 16 2007 5:24 PM
Oh, I haven't looked in that article, thanks! I guess I'll just have to be patient with those setups...
Rob Grayson wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Fri, Jun 22 2007 12:27 PM

David,

Thanks for the article. I've recently installed Office 2007 on a computer that previously had Office 2003 installed. During the install process, I chose to uninstall all the 2003 applications apart from Word. Once I'd confirmed that Word 2007 wa spropermy installed and working, I then uninstalled Word 2003 too.

However, found I needed to reinstall Word 2003. I really like Word 2007, but am a professional translator and need to use certain plugins for my job, which seem to work much faster with Word 2003 than Word 2007. Now, when I start up 2007 after using Word 2003, I get a startup/configuration message as described in the Knowledge Base article you linked to:

"If you have multiple versions of Word installed on the computer, the Windows Installer may start when you start Microsoft Office Word 2007. And, a message that states that Windows Installer is preparing to install Word may be displayed. You may receive this message before Word starts.The Windows Installer runs whenever the version of Word that you start is not the one that is registered."

I then have to wait several minutes before I can use Word 2007. I realise that I did not strictly adhere to the installation order set out in the article, since I reinstalled Word 2003 after Word 2007 was already installed. I found another article (not on the Microsoft site) which recommended doing a "repair" installation of 2007, which it said would have the same effect as doing a fresh install of 2007. I ran the "repair" installation, which seemed to be churning away for quite a while, but the end result is still the same - each time I want to switch back to 2007 after using 2003, I have to wait ages for it to run through a configuration process.

Sorry for the length of this message, but wanted to make sure I spelt things out clearly. I can boil it down to two questions:

1. Is it possible to have Word 2003 and Word 2007 installed on the same PC, and to be able to switch "seamlessly" between them, without having to wait for a configuration process each time?

2. Assuming it is possible, what do I need to do to get it to happen on my machine? Should I completely uninstall both versions of Office and then reinstall in the correct order (Word 2003 followed by Office 2007)?

Thanks in anticipation,

Rob

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Fri, Jun 22 2007 12:39 PM

Rob,

these questions are good ones and similar ones (such as installing BCM 2003 on Vista) I do not have all the answers too.  I will try and reproduce your situation early next week and get back.  It is the close of the finanical year and things can be a bit frantic to book all the business, so please bear with me.

thanks

David

Rob Grayson wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Fri, Jun 22 2007 2:50 PM

David,

Thanks for your reply. I'll check back next week to see if you've been able to throw any light on this.

Regards,

Rob

Hernan wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Mon, Jul 2 2007 8:54 PM

Can someone answer Dane Hedrick  question?

I have the same problem, I want to go back to 2003?

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Mon, Jul 2 2007 10:13 PM

Hernan, Dane,

Office 2007 PSTs and Office 2003 PSTs can be in defferent file formats.  If you still have the old PSTs on your system then you will have a problem.  If you go and look in c:\users\<username>\appdata\local\microsoft\outlook (you may need to run an elevated command prompt to get there) and you will find a bundle of files - try renaming them or going up a directory and renaming outlook to something else.

ttfn

David

Rob Grayson wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Tue, Jul 3 2007 9:25 AM

Hi Dave,

Just wondering whether you've had chance to look at the issue I raised - or if you're likely to be able to soon?

Thanks in anticipation,

Rob

Rob Grayson wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Wed, Jul 11 2007 10:11 AM

Hi Dave,

Sorry to pester - wondering wheter you've gone on holiday or are just busy with other things...?

Just that I'm desperate to be able to use Word 2007 but need to solve this problem of it coexisting with 2003 without having to reconfigure every time.

Yours hopefully,

Rob

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Thu, Jul 12 2007 12:44 PM

Sorry, been busy with the "changing job" thing that you can read about on the blog.  Anyway, building a Vista VPC right now to do some Office 2003 type things and hopefull then the co-existance items.

thanks

David

Rob Grayson wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Fri, Jul 13 2007 11:45 AM

Thanks, Dave - will keep checking back. Al the best with the job change!

Rob

Jodie Miners wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Tue, Jul 17 2007 6:19 AM

I too am having the same problems that Rob Grayson is experiencing. I installed the programs in the correct order but put Office 2003 in a different install folder Program Files\Microsoft Office 2003 rather than just Microsoft Office...

I was hoping that maybe I could configure the Open With menu or the Send to Menu to control which version the file opens in, but I can't seem to work out how to change the Open With menu in Vista. Excel works well always opening in the one you have open but Word and Power Point are a real pain. If there is any solution to this I would love to know.

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Tue, Jul 17 2007 10:50 AM

OK, I have just done the Vista with Office 2003 install including the install of BCM.  I will try to load Office 2007 on that system to further document it and also try to give you an "open in Word 2003 / open in word 2007" option on the file.

I am a work at home dad this week with my wife away from home for the week, so the time I get to do these things is highly dependant on Lizzy (my 1 year old) and her sleep patterns.

bear with me.

thanks

David

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Fri, Jul 20 2007 6:30 PM

Try this:

1. Close all instances of Word

2. Click Start and then click Run.

3. In the Run dialog box, type regedit and then click OK.

4. Select the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options

5. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

6. Type NoReReg for the name of the new value.

7. Double-click the NoReReg value.

8. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, change the value to 1 and then click OK.

9. Quit Registry Editor and then start Word normally.

Let me know if this works

David

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Sat, Jul 21 2007 4:11 AM

I can now confirm that running this command stops the dialogs from appearing when switching between versions of Word 2003 and 2007.  Press Windows Key+R (start/run) and paste this text:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

onto a single line, press enter and once Word 2007 is run and goes through the configuration process one more time (if at all), you should not see it again.

thanks

David

David Overton's Blog wrote How to get rid of the installer / configuration dialog when running Office 2007 and Office 2003 on the same system - for Vista and other versions of Windows
on Sat, Jul 21 2007 4:47 AM

I have been asked this many times following up on the blog entry Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Sat, Jul 21 2007 5:15 AM

I have just written up the how to get the office assistant working in Vista - it will appear on the blog at 00:01 on Monday morning (UK time, so just after 4pm PST Sunday night).

thanks

AltmanTC • Blog wrote AltmanTC • Blog
on Mon, Jul 23 2007 1:31 AM

Pingback from  AltmanTC • Blog

Rob Grayson wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Mon, Jul 23 2007 4:18 PM

David,

This fix works a dream. Thank you so much for your help - that's going to make life a lot easier for me.

Cheers,

Rob

Aaron K wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Mon, Jul 23 2007 4:42 PM

This fix works for everything except Access... for me.  Is anyone else experiencing the same issue or is it just me?

Thanks for the great work!

David Overton wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Mon, Jul 23 2007 4:54 PM

Aaron,

whihch problem are you talking about - the install box (have you tried replacing the word Word with Access in the Reg command, eg

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Access\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

or some other problem?

thanks

David

Jodie Miners wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Wed, Jul 25 2007 1:31 AM

Thanks heaps for that David, it works very well!!!!

Any thoughts on the Open With... option to decide which app to open a file with? the way I work is to browse through explorer first to find the file that I want to work with. It is very difficult for me to switch back to opening the application first and then using File > Open to then browse for the fle.

One thing I have done is install Start ++ (www.brandontools.com) and set up shortcuts w3 and w7 for word 2003 and 2007 etc which helps a lot also, but I would love to be able to choose from explorer.

Thanks so much for your help David.

Chris wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Sat, Jul 28 2007 5:12 AM

David -

is it possible to install Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 on Vista? I am looking at a new laptop and the ones i have seen only come with Vista and not XP. Any ideas as to whether or not Adobe CS Premium can be installed too?

thanks a bunch for your help David.

Chris

Shane H wrote re: Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
on Mon, Jul 30 2007 6:47 PM

Our academic environment requires that we have both Office 2003 and Office 2007, with Office 2003 being the default application.

This can be done by installing 2007, and then 2003, adding the NoReReg dword to the registry for Word. All programs use 2003 applications by default.

The Problem that we are having however is with Access. When Access 2007 is run, the Office 2007 setup runs, which changes all of the applications back to Office 2007 as default. (Everything, word, excel, powerpoint, etc)

When Access 2003 is run after this, it runs the Office 2003 setup, however this only changes Access 2003 back to the default app. The other apps remain 2007 defaults.

The NoReReg tag does not work for Access.

Any thoughts?