Is Office 2007 compromised by Windows 10?

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I use a PC running Windows 10.

I have a legitimate copy of Office 2007  which I transfer when I replace my PC.  This was fine until recently.  Now I find that every so often, when I try to open a file, the software has to correct itself.  Once done, it is fine again.  More recently, I have found that when I click on a Word or Excel file directly, it won’t open it  and I have to open it from Word or Excel.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled Office but this has not made any difference.

Is this an intrinsic problem arising from running Office 2007 on a Windows 10 computer, or is there some other problem that could be corrected.  I wondered if a re-installion of Windows would cure it.

Or would it be worth buying a copy of a more recent version of Office.  I am not, however, willing to rent software paying an annual fee to Microsoft, and may have to transfer to Libre Office.

What is particularly annoying is that there is absolutely no benefit to me in newer versions of Office,  I have Office 97 which my grandson, after much initial mockery, installed on his PC and uses all the time now.

All help gratefully received.

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Perhaps look in Event Viewer?

Start typing event in the taskbar’s Search Box and Event Viewer should appear as a result:

My understanding is that Office 2007 doesn’t use the Application or Microsoft Office Alerts event categories that later versions use but, instead, Microsoft Office Diagnostics and Microsoft Office Sessions.

Perhaps one of these categories includes entries that show more info about the issues you are experiencing.

Hope this helps…

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WSepzcaw

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Thanks, will give that a go and report back.

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I appreciate the hesitancy to continually pay for upgraded versions of Microsoft Office when old versions are sufficient for your operational needs.

However, I believe that the availability of security updates for Office applications is a compelling reason to upgrade that should not be discounted or ignored.  This is especially true where the applications are run on an internet connected system versus a system that is in an isolated and protected environment.  In such cases it might be more accurate to say that Office 2007 represents a possible compromise of Windows and not the other way around.  In these cases abandoning old, out-of-date versions of Office and migrating to current supported versions of Office (or to LibreOffice) makes a lot of sense to me.

 

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WSepzcaw, opti1

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EricB

Thanks for this.

I’ve been running Office 2007 for 15 years or more without any issues, so may just take my chances.  I’m using lots of other old software as well.  I do have an up-to-date virus checker.

Any new verision of software you already involves climbing a new learning curve usally gaining nothing useful in the process, espcially in the case of Office.

I particularly object to making an annual payment to Microsoft so its 2007 or Libre Office.

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You probably have some sort of click to run installed at the same time as an older Office.  Then once a month when click to run installs, it slightly breaks the ability for the office to launch from explorer.

I say this as someone who has personally experienced this on a workstation until I figured out the root cause.

Or just uninstall and reinstall the Office click to run every month.  Which is what we would do until we figured out that an older Visio installed on a workstation was triggering this patching mismatch and causing this issue.

Your grandson needs to rethink that Office 97.  Seriously.  He will be phished at for the rest of his life and he needs to use modern Office to know how to handle security prompts and information.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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WSepzcaw

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Thanks for this.  I’m not aware of any Click to Run which might be installed on my PC – how could I find this out?  never heard ot Click and Run until now…..

My grandson is 15 so is unlikely to pay any attention to anything I say but I’ll try.

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Win10/11 come with a default trial/hook to Office installed that can be click-to-run 0r Office 365 depending on the license you apply.

Look in Settings\Apps\Installed Apps. If you see a red Office icon “Get Office” or “Office Hub” (Not Office 2007, Office 97), uninstall it. That will possibly take care of the problem.

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WSepzcaw

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I found Microsoft 365 among the Apps and when I clicked on i, it said “Click and Run”.  I have uninstalled it.  Both Word and Excel needed to repair themselves after I did this and seem ot be  working now.  The problem I have is intermittent, so I won’t know if its been resolved for a while.   I will report back in a month if it has not recurred.  If it does recur, I will try out some of the other suggestions given here and also report back,

Thank you for your help – and also to everyone else who has chipped in.

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PKCano

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Tell him Grandpa knows all.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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WSepzcaw

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Grandma

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wavy, SueW, PKCano, b

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WSepzcaw wrote:

I’m not aware of any Click to Run which might be installed on my PC – how could I find this out?

1. Click on Start then, in the alphabetical list, navigate to Windows PowerShell ISE and open it.

2. A window will appear with a top and bottom pane plus a menubar and toolbar.

3. Select everything in the following code block then press CTRL+C to copy it. (All it does is tell PowerShell to search 4 areas of the registry for any apps which include Office in their titles. Many thanks to https://powershell.one/code/5.html)

function Get-Software
{
    <# .SYNOPSIS Reads installed software from registry .PARAMETER DisplayName Name or part of name of the software you are looking for .EXAMPLE Get-Software -DisplayName *Office* returns all software with "Office" anywhere in its name .MORE INFO https://powershell.one/code/5.html #>

    param
    (
    # emit only software that matches the value you submit:
    [string]
    $DisplayName = '*'
    )


    #region define friendly texts:
    $Scopes = @{
        HKLM = 'All Users'
        HKCU = 'Current User'
    }

    $Architectures = @{
        $true = '32-Bit'
        $false = '64-Bit'
    }
    #endregion

    #region define calculated custom properties:
        # add the scope of the software based on whether the key is located
        # in HKLM: or HKCU:
        $Scope = @{
            Name = 'Scope'
            Expression = {
            $Scopes[$_.PSDrive.Name]
            }
        }

        # add architecture (32- or 64-bit) based on whether the registry key 
        # contains the parent key WOW6432Node:
        $Architecture = @{
        Name = 'Architecture'
        Expression = {$Architectures[$_.PSParentPath -like '*\WOW6432Node\*']}
        }
    #endregion

    #region define the properties (registry values) we are after
        # define the registry values that you want to include into the result:
        $Values = 'AuthorizedCDFPrefix',
                    'Comments',
                    'Contact',
                    'DisplayName',
                    'DisplayVersion',
                    'EstimatedSize',
                    'HelpLink',
                    'HelpTelephone',
                    'InstallDate',
                    'InstallLocation',
                    'InstallSource',
                    'Language',
                    'ModifyPath',
                    'NoModify',
                    'PSChildName',
                    'PSDrive',
                    'PSParentPath',
                    'PSPath',
                    'PSProvider',
                    'Publisher',
                    'Readme',
                    'Size',
                    'SystemComponent',
                    'UninstallString',
                    'URLInfoAbout',
                    'URLUpdateInfo',
                    'Version',
                    'VersionMajor',
                    'VersionMinor',
                    'WindowsInstaller',
                    'Scope',
                    'Architecture'
    #endregion

    #region Define the VISIBLE properties
        # define the properties that should be visible by default
        # keep this below 5 to produce table output:
        [string[]]$visible = 'DisplayName','DisplayVersion','Scope','Architecture'
        [Management.Automation.PSMemberInfo[]]$visibleProperties = [System.Management.Automation.PSPropertySet]::new('DefaultDisplayPropertySet',$visible)
    #endregion

    #region read software from all four keys in Windows Registry:
        # read all four locations where software can be registered, and ignore non-existing keys:
        Get-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*',
                            'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*',
                            'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*',
                            'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' -ErrorAction Ignore |
        # exclude items with no DisplayName:
        Where-Object DisplayName |
        # include only items that match the user filter:
        Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -like $DisplayName } |
        # add the two calculated properties defined earlier:
        Select-Object -Property *, $Scope, $Architecture |
        # create final objects with all properties we want:
        Select-Object -Property $values |
        # sort by name, then scope, then architecture:
        Sort-Object -Property DisplayName, Scope, Architecture |
        # add the property PSStandardMembers so PowerShell knows which properties to
        # display by default:
        Add-Member -MemberType MemberSet -Name PSStandardMembers -Value $visibleProperties -PassThru
    #endregion 
}


Get-Software -DisplayName *Office*

(Alternatively, copy the contents of the code.txt file I’ve attached to the end of this post.)

4. Use CTRL+V to paste the code into the *top* pane of the Windows PowerShell ISE.

5. Click on the green arrow button in the toolbar to ‘run’ the code. The results will appear in the lower pane. For example:

Although my laptop has several apps which include the word ‘Office’, none of them include ‘Click-to-Run’ in their titles. (I understand Office’s Click-to-Run components are usually installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\integration\.)

find_office_code

Hope this helps…

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WSepzcaw, Cybertooth

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Click to run is geek speak for the newer in the background updating version of Office.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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WSepzcaw

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