Knowledge Base

How to run multiple versions of Office on one computer

Article ID: 218861

Article Last Modified on 1/24/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Office 2000 Standard Edition
Microsoft Office 97 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q218861

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

For a Microsoft Office XP version of this article, see 290576.

SUMMARY

Although we do not recommend it, you can install and use more than one version of Office on a single computer. For example, you can install and use both Office 2000 and Office 97 on the same computer.

This article describes the problems you may experience when you do this. Additionally, this article contains advice about preventing different versions of Office from conflicting with each other.

MORE INFORMATION

Order of installation

If you want to install and use more than one version of Office on the same computer, you must install the earliest version first. For example, if you want to use both Office 95 and Office 2000 on the same computer, you must install Office 95 first. This step is required because of the way that registry keys, shared programs, file name 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.x         First
   95          Second
   97          Third
   2000        Fourth

The rest of this article assumes that you installed the versions of Office in this order.

Default install location changes to Office2k folder

If the Setup programs detects that you installed a distributed application by using Microsoft Access run-time files, the default folder for Setup is Office2k, instead of Program Files\Microsoft Office.

Multiple versions of Outlook

You cannot run multiple versions of Outlook on the same computer. For example, Microsoft Outlook 2000 cannot coexist with any earlier versions of Outlook. If you choose to install Outlook 2000, the Setup program will not let you keep any earlier version. Outlook 97 or Outlook 98 will be removed even if you click to select the Keep these programs check box in the Removing Previous Versions dialog box.

Microsoft ClipArt Gallery and Microsoft Graph

These programs will not run correctly when they are installed on the same computer together with earlier versions of Office. Because ClipArt Gallery and Graph overwrite registry entries that are used in the earlier versions of Office, the installation of multiple versions of ClipArt Gallery and Graph is not a supported configuration.

Using the Office Shortcut Bar

When earlier versions of Office are installed on the same computer, the Office 2000 Shortcut Bar does not use buttons from the Office 7.0 ShortCut Bar or from the Office 97 Shortcut Bar. Because the Office 2000 Shortcut Bar uses Windows Installer shortcuts, it cannot use the existing toolbars or buttons from earlier versions of the Office Shortcut Bar.

When either Office 7.0 or Office 97 is installed together with Office 2000, the Shortcut Bars can be started separately. The Shortcut Bars cannot be started at the same time. Each Shortcut Bar can have its own set of custom toolbars and buttons. These toolbars and buttons cannot be shared between the two Office Shortcut Bars. For more information about Office Shortcut Bars, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

220914 An earlier version of the Office Shortcut Bar runs instead of the Office 2000 Shortcut Bar

Shortcuts on the Start menu

Office 7.0 and Office 97 use the same shortcuts on the Start menu to start programs. Therefore, when you install Office 97, the Setup program overwrites the shortcuts for Office 7.0 programs. The following shortcuts are affected:

Microsoft Access
Microsoft Binder
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word

If you rename the Office 7.0 or Office 97 shortcuts before you install Office 2000, you can use the shortcuts for both sets of programs on the Start menu. To avoid confusion, Microsoft suggests that you add the words 7.0 or 97 to each renamed shortcut. For example, rename Access to Microsoft Access 97 before you install Office 2000. This action keeps a separate icon for each different version of Access.

You can also move the Office 7.0 or 97 shortcuts to a subfolder on the Start menu. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

220885 Setup overwrites Office 95 or Office 97 Start menu items

Microsoft Office Binder

When Office 7.0 and 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. Therefore, when you insert a section, an Office 2000 document type is used.

This behavior may cause problems when you try to share a binder file with users who use earlier versions of Office.

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.
On Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows 2000:

With Excel and PowerPoint 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 you most recently installed. With Office 4.x, every time that you start an Office 4.x program, it will register itself as the latest version installed and try to load the document by using that version of the program.

With Microsoft Access and with Word 7.0, Word 97, or Word 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. With Office 4.x, every time that you start an Office 4.x program, the program registers itself as the latest version installed and tries to load the document by using that version of the program.

On Microsoft Windows 98 and on Microsoft Windows Millennium:

With Office 7.0, Office 97, or Office 2000, if no version of the program in which the document was created is running, the document is opened in the most recent version of the program. With Office 4.x, every time that you start an Office 4.x program, the program will register itself as the latest version installed and will try to load the document by using that version of the program.

For more information about how to use Windows Explorer, 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 the same version of Office, such as a Word document that contains an Excel worksheet object.

Shared programs

If you installed the versions of Office in the order described in the "Order of Installation" section, you will not experience any problems when you use shared programs such as Equation Editor and Clip Gallery. 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.

Microsoft KB Archive/218861

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