Microsoft KB Archive/290576

= How to run multiple versions of Office on one computer =

Article ID: 290576

Article Last Modified on 12/4/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office XP Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition
 * Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition for Students and Teachers
 * Microsoft Office XP Developer Edition
 * Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q290576





For a Microsoft Office 2000 version of this article, see 218861.



For a Microsoft Office 2003 version of this article, see 828956.



SUMMARY
Although Microsoft does not recommend it, it is possible to install and use more than one version of Office on a single computer. For example, you can install and use both Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 97 on the same computer.

This article describes the problems you may encounter when you do this and offers advice on preventing different versions of Office from conflicting with each other.

Note Microsoft has not tested running Microsoft Office XP with multiple versions of Office on Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition or Microsoft Windows 2000 with Terminal Services. Therefore, the configuration is not supported by Microsoft.



Order of installation
If you want to install and use more than one version of Office on the same computer, you should install the earliest version first. For example, if you want to use both Office 97 and Office XP on the same computer, install Office 97 first. This step is necessary because of the way registry keys, shared programs, file extensions, and other settings are managed for each version of Office, and for the programs that are included with each version of Office.

The following table shows the order in which the versions of Office should be installed:   Office         Installation version       order ---  4.2 or 4.3     First 95            Second 97            Third 2000          Fourth XP            Fifth The remainder of this article assumes that you installed the versions of Office in this order.

Office Bin folder location changes to \Office10 folder
When you install Office XP, the default folder for Setup is still \Program Files\Microsoft Office. However, the Office Bin folder (the folder in which the Office .exe files are installed) has changed to \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10. This was done to provide a better user experience for users requiring multiple versions of Office installed on the same computer. There is no way to change the name of the Office Bin folder.

Multiple versions of Outlook
Microsoft Outlook 2002 cannot coexist with any earlier version of Outlook. If you choose to install Outlook 2002, the Setup program will not allow you to keep any earlier version. Outlook 2000 or Outlook 98 will be removed even if you select the Keep these programs check box in the Removing Previous Versions dialog box. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290366 Setup may remove earlier versions of Office

Using the Office Shortcut Bar
When earlier versions of Office are installed on the same computer, the Office XP Shortcut Bar does not use buttons from the earlier versions of Office.

When earlier versions of Office are installed with Office XP, the shortcut bars can be started separately although not concurrently, and each may have their own set of custom toolbars and buttons. These toolbars and buttons cannot be shared between the two Office Shortcut Bars.

Shortcuts on the Start menu
Office 95, Office 97, Office 2000 and Office XP use the same shortcut names on the Start menu to start programs. Because of this behavior, when you install Office XP, the Setup program overwrites the shortcuts for the earlier versions of Office. The following shortcuts are affected:

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft FrontPage

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar

If you rename the shortcuts for the earlier versions of Office before you install Office XP, you can use the shortcuts for all sets of programs on the Start menu. To avoid confusion, Microsoft suggests that you add the version number to each renamed shortcut. For example, rename the shortcut pointing to Access 97 to Microsoft Access 97 before you install Office XP. You can also move the Office 95 or Office 97 shortcuts to a subfolder on the Start menu.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

292584 Office XP setup program overwrites Start menu items from earlier versions of Office

If you manually move the shortcuts for either Office XP or Office 2000 and you reinstall the product or repair the shortcuts, the shortcuts will be recreated on the Programs menu off the Start menu.

Note You can customize Office XP setup or Office 2000 setup to install the shortcuts to another location on the Start menu by using the Custom Installation Wizard.

For more information about the Microsoft Office XP Resource Kit, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/

Microsoft Office Binder
When Office 95, or Office 97 are installed on the same computer as Office 2000, the Add Section dialog box in Office Binder displays document types for the most recently installed version of Office up to Office 2000. As a result, when you insert a section into a binder file, an Office 2000 document type is used. This behavior may cause problems when you try to share a binder file with other users who have earlier versions of Office.

Note Office XP does not ship with Microsoft Office Binder. However, a utility to extract all office documents from a Binder file does.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

281931 &quot;This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action&quot; error message when you open a Binder file

Double-clicking files in Windows Explorer
When you double-click an Office document in Windows Explorer, or from the recent documents folder of Windows, the following rules apply:
 * If a version of the program in which the document was created is running, the document is opened in that version.
 * With Office 95, 97, 2000, or XP, if no version of the program in which the document was created is running, the document is opened in the version of the program that you most recently installed. With Office 4.x, every time you start an Office 4.x program, it registers itself as the latest version installed and attempts to load the document with that version of the program.

With Microsoft Access and Microsoft Word version 7.0, 97, or 2000, if no version of the program in which the document was created is running, the document is opened in the version of the program that was most recently open.

To reassociate documents with the programs included with a particular version of Office, run the Office Setup program and click Reinstall (for versions 95 or 97) or Repair Office (for Office 2000 or Office XP). Doing this registers the file associations for that version of Office.

Note This does not correct the behavior if you are using Microsoft Access or Microsoft Word. For additional information about how to make file associations, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

141275 How to open a file with other than associated program

Inserting Office OLE objects into other programs
If you install multiple versions of Office on the same computer and you insert an Office object, such as an Excel worksheet object, into another program, such as a Word document, the newest version of the program is used. This may cause problems if you share the container file with users who are not using Office XP, for example, a Word document that contains an Excel worksheet object.

Shared programs
If you installed the versions of Office in the order described in the &quot;Order of Installation&quot; section, you will not experience any problems when you use shared programs such as Equation Editor and Clip Gallery. Note that the Object dialog box may display more than one entry for each shared program; this behavior occurs because multiple versions of the shared program may be installed on the computer.

&quot;Preparing to install...&quot; message starting Word
If you have multiple versions of Word installed on your computer, when you start Word 2002, the Windows Installer may run and display a message that it is preparing to install.

Note For additional information about how to run multiple versions of Microsoft Word, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

319956 The Answer Wizard and the Help Index tabs appear blank when you use Help in an Office program

Additional query words: concurrent coexist together several inf

Keywords: kbhowto KB290576

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