[bettei]

I got a new HP desktop computer a few months ago with only a 3 month free trial of Microsofts office program on it. To renew this is quite expensive, and all I would want is the Word portion of the program in order to write an occasional letter.
I have a legimate CD of Microsoft Office 97 with the license key that I installed on the new computer. Everything looks normal, so I typed a document and tried to print it. The printer starts and sends out paper, but it is blank. There is nothing wrong with the printer, because it will print an email message, etc. just fine.
The new computer has XP media center 2005. Aren't these programs compatable or something? What would cause the pages to be blank? Is there some settings I need to change in order to make it print?

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It should work, though Access may have issues.

The alternative if you don't want to spend any extra money is OpenOffice - http://www.openoffice.org

[Neil Jones]

It should work, though Access may have issues.

The alternative if you don't want to spend any extra money is OpenOffice - http://www.openoffice.org

[bettei]

I talked to a computer repairman at the store where I bought my computer, and he told me that by installing Offfice 97, I have corrupted my operating system, and should reformat my computer. Just removing the program is not enough because it is still on the registry.
Is this true? I had no idea a licensed Microsoft product could cause damage to a new computer.

[piper]

Have you already uninstalled Office 97? Why would the computer tech say the OS is corrupt? Are other things now wrong with your computer since installing it? It's true there may be remnants in the registry, but a good registry cleaner should be able to get rid of it.

Windows ships with Word Pad installed. It's a very basic word processor and will work for simple letters and such. It's under All Programs, Accessories, Word Pad.

[bettei]

I have tried to uninstall 97....It asks for the original CD to complete removal. I inserted the CD like it said, and when it prompted me, I clicked remove. I did not know whether to select remove or remove all, incase there are shared files. The process started, then just hung up and stalled. I naver had such a problem in removing what I thought was a simple program.

[piper]

Try booting into Safe Mode, then uninstall it. Choose remove all. Hopefully you'll be able to get it removed that way.

[bettei]

How do you get to safe mode without erasing anything? I did it once long ago, and now I am afraid to do anything to make problem worse.

Another thing....I spent HOURS copying old pictures and scanning slides and made folders in My Pictures. I planned on downloading them to a cd. I put a brand new cd in-a dvd-r, and when I attempt to copy, it tells me it is having trouble reading certain files....do I want to retry, skip, etc? I certainly hope this problem hasn't ruined my chances of copying those pictures.

[piper]

Safe Mode should not have caused any issues, because it simply starts Windows with an extremely limited amount of services, drivers, srtartup programs, etc. And it should not affect or delete anything. When you boot the computer and see the first Windows splash screen, press F8, F2, or the CTRL key repeatedly to get the boot option menu. Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, and Last Known Good Configuration are some of the options. Choose Safe Mode. Windows will start, but will look odd.

[bettei]

Ok, I tried that, and it won't work either. I'd like opinions on whether it will hurt anything by leaving it on my computer. Like I said, I have been told that it eventually harm it. Is that true?
The only solution would be to reformat it, and I want to do that as the last resort.

[pip22]

Windows XP wasn't around when Office 97 was launched, so compatibility between the two could be an issue. However, XP has a method of dealing with this in most cases. It's called "Compatibility Mode" which you can assign to any specific application which needs it.

Re-install Office 97 (and no, it does not corrupt your operating system) then read this: http://www.microsoft...february18.mspx

[bettei]

That looks like a simple thing to do, however, when I go to Office properties, there are only 3 tabs to choose from...General/Sharing/Customize. I opened each one, and do not see where a compatability checkbox would be.
Somewhere I ran across a drop-down menu with the options to run Office with the selections in the dropdown box. However, XP wasn't one of the selections, since it was newer than the Office program. If the option isn't in the selection, how can you get around that?
Sorry I'm not better versed in computers to tell you more.

[SRX660]

The Program Compatability Wizard is in the Accessories folder.

I had enough problems with Office 97 installed on a XP computer that when i had the chance to reformat the computer i also bought Office 2000 off Ebay to use after reinstalling Windows. The compatability mode still did not fix some of the problems i had with Office 97. One problem was a error in spell check which crashed the program making anything i was working on get lost in the process. The $65 i spent on Office 2000 at Ebay was well worth it.

SRX660

[Johanna]

Did you uninstall the trial version of the newer version of Office? If you didn't uninstall that before you installed Office 97, that could explain the problems. Do not reinstall Office 97 without first going to Add Remove in the Control Panel and removing the trial version. Do not delete anything, we want to "uninstall".
Johanna