Office 97 install problem (Windows 98)

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First post on here folks!

Been searching through this wonderful forum looking for some specific info. My Mother in Law (no jokes) purchased Microsoft Office 97 Pro to run on her rather elderly, but reliable, PC. It was sealed and appears to be authentic. OS is Windows98.

I tried the install, but it kept freezing during the main part of the install. Trouble with ‘destination, Shared MicrosoftPROOF some kind of .dll.’ I did a little reading and realized that I’d need to disable the install of Outlook to stop it trying to install this older version on top of the newer W98 version of Outlook.

OK. Did a custom install without Outlook but it did the same thing. So I tried the install on another computer with W98 and another…same thing. I had decided the software was a duffer until it installed fine on my own computer. However it runs with XP.

Are there any other known problems with this install, or is it actually a poor copy that just happens to be tolerated by XP?

HELP!!

Jimmy

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Hi Jimmy

Welcome to the Lounge.

By any chance was the message anything to do with Kernel32.dll?

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Thanks guys for the prompt replies!

It’s not a kernel thing. It gives me no indication of what is wrong……it just stops.

It could be the date though. I’ll try that. However, I sort of expect that about a million people have installed this program on W98 and if this was the problem I’m pretty sure a million people would have heard of it! I can find nothing.

I’ll try changing the date, but I’ll not be able to try it for a few days. In the meantime…any other theories?

Thanks again.

Jimmy

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As long as I remember, Office 97 Pro contains very bad written and nasty version of Outlook – Outlook 97. Microsoft released a new version next year, Outlook 98, and encouraged everybody to upgrade (at that time it was free download). In addition, Office 97 had several updates, the latest one was SR-2b.

Windows 98 (and Windows 98 Second Edition, as well as all other later versions of Windows) did not contain Outlook, but Outlook Express. Despite similar names and functions (both are mail clients), they are two different kind of programs and they could not affect each other installation. However, if any version of Outlook (not Outlook Express) was installed, it makes installation of Outlook 97 impossible.

Free upgrade version of Outlook 98 is unavailable from Microsoft anymore; but some security patches, including SR-2b, are still available: visit http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeup…0224961033.aspx%5B/url%5D

—–Later addition——–

I also remember, that Win98 was not fully y2k-compliant. Just a guess: change the year on computer clock to 1999 (double-clicking the clock in the lower right corner of the desktop) and try to install Office 97 once again. Then change the year back.

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I still install Office97 from time to time for my own testing purposes. There are a number of “esoteric” supplementary tools available that are included with a full install. “SharedMicrosoftProof” sounds like a path that may be in point. May I suggest that, in addition to “cherry-picking out” Outlook 97 (as already recommended) you take the time to also cherry-pick out some of the tools on offer that you reckon your family friend is highly unlikely to ever need. HTH

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Unkamunka,

I tried cherry picking out everything except Word. Still froze…..

Hmmm.

Jimmy

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Hi Jimmy

I have never had this problem as we used to use the Office 97 package upto about months ago(we have made the massive leap of going to O2003…too longer story)

We had O97 installed an the PC’s and due the sluggish problems with the scripting in Outlook 97 where we could not get proper automation, some PC’s were installed with the later version of Outlook 98…it is effectively an upgrade of Outlook 97. This is probably where the problem lies as there is “probably” a share on this dll file and it is therefore falling over during install. Do you have a disc with Outlook 98 on it somewhere as I would tend to think it best to uninstall it and then lay Office 97 on the PC and then re-install Outlook 98 where it will be able to make the changes necessary to the paths and links to the right dll files

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Jerry,

Oh jings!

Right, getting out of my depth a bit here. What you’re saying is that it is possible that this installation of Windows98 may have installed Outlook98. Am I correct in saying that this is not Outlook Express? So when I’m trying to install Office97 it is trying to cover install Outlook97, causing problems! So, when I deselect Outlook for a custom install should this not then work OK?

Please be patient with me, as I would love to sort this for her.

Thanks again,

Jimmy

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Jimmy

Patience is my middle name ….well sometimes

Outlook 97/98 are completely different to Outlook Express. OE could be, I suppose, be”Outlook Lite”. It is a cut down version.

Windows 98 will install Outlook Express only. The Office discs can/will instal the full blown version of Outlook(Has Calendars/contact lists/tasks amongst other things)

I may have over complicated it for you. Outlook 98 is the second version of Microsoft Outlook, introduced in March 1998 as a free download, later maintained as a free upgrade for registered Outlook 97 users and finally withdrawn from web download just before the release of Outlook 2000 in June 1999.

Will your mother in law need the full functionality of Outlook 98, could she just use Outlook Express? Check with her and see if she is happy with Outlook Express….if not talk her into it and uninstall Outlook 98 and use Outlook Express instead Outlook Express can be upgraded from the Microsoft site.

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Jerry,

She only wants to use Word, Excel and Powerpoint and is not interested in Outlook at all. That is why I deselected it for the custom install. Is it possible that an Outlook98 is lurking somewhere in her machine, ######ing up my install. I would be happy not to have any Outlooks at all.

Microsoft Works is installed….could that cause a problem?

Jimmy

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>that an Outlook98 is lurking somewhere in her machine

Tentatively…yes. Have a look in Control Panel|Add Remove programs and see if it is there.

>Microsoft Works is installed….could that cause a problem?

Not my area of strength I am afraid maybe another Lounger could help you on that one.

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OK, ta!

I’ll try some of these suggestions ASAP.

In the meantime, I actually suspect that unfortunately have a dicey disk.

Any more ideas????

Jimmy

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Personally, now that you’re not installing Outlook 97, my own experience tells me that Outlook 98 is a complete red herring. If the error is in the Proof subdirectory and it’s choking on Word, try unchecking one/all of the spell-checking/proofing features installed with Word. While it would be help ful have that running with Word, it’s not a total deal-breaker.

addedIf you have had Microsoft Works in there already, it could be tripping over Proofing Tools installed when Microsoft Works was there. Another Avenue you could try is going to something like C:Program FilesSharedMicrosoftProof and simply moving everything that presently is in that folder to (say) a new sub-folder that you create for the purpose just while you’re installing Office 97. Then try adding back the files one by one after the install.

HTH

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I’d really like to do that, but how? There is no option during the install….or is there?

Jimmy

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There definitely is – at least on the disk I have. On a custom install, go down each of the choices in the main box and then press one of the right hand side option buttons (about 2/3 of the way down). That – in most of the cases – brings you to a sub-options menu where you can pick and choose to your heart’s content. Before you go there, however, have a look at my supplementary Edit about what may have been left behind by Microsoft Works. Try that one first – just in case – as you may then be able to have your cake and eat it! HTH

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WOW! I.m getting all excited now! Thanks Unkamunka….keep em coming!

I’ll print all this off before I go visit her and I’ll send the winning solution a Prize! She bakes a fine bun!!

Jimmy

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Hi again. It’s Saturday and I’m afraid none of the above ideas worked.

I first tried doing a custom install then going into the sub menu and de-selected everything except Word files. The installation went really well until 72% when it stalled. The file it was stryggling with was a vbssomething.hlp. This implies that it was still trying to insall a help file of some sort that must be tied into the Word Program files.

I then tried moving all the contents of the Shared Microsoft file into another temporary file. Same thing happened. It seems that this program will not write into the Microsoft Shared file at all, even when it is empty before the install.

My theory now is that it is a faulty disk as it continually freezes the computer at various stages of the process, and is generally, ummm, ticking me off!!!

However, this doesn’t explain why it installed perfectly on WinXP (My own computer) first time?

If anybody has any other ideas, please feel free to respond, otherwise the disk is being returned on Monday.

Thanks,

Jimmy

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Is there any chance of swapping CD-ROM drives on that machine? It’s been my experience that some drives do not read really old CDs well; for example, I have a new 48x CD-ROM drive on one of my computers that absolutely refuses to completely read my old Office 97 CD, but an older 16x LG drive reads it without errors. What I’m suggesting is that the drive may be the cause of the error, not the CD itself. If you can persuade a friend to loan you his/her CD-ROM, it’ll only take about five minutes to install. By doing that, you can eliminate another variable in the troubleshooting process.

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Have you checked out the hard drive on the system you are installing the software to?

Run CHKDSK from a DOS prompt, just to make sure that the disk structure is OK.

StuartR

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Thanks guys!

I’ve checked the hard drive which seems OK.

It does appear that the CD Rom is struggling to read this disk, but when I tried this disk on a variety of Win98 computers at work the same thing happened. However Microsoft Works is also installed in all of those computers too! Why can’t this disk just overwrite or ignore existing similar files…..grrrr…

Jimmy

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I have two suggestions. 1) If you really want to keep banging your head on the monitor to install Office 97 try copying the entire CD to a folder (i.e. Office Source) on your harddrive, then attempt an install from there. It will be like a network install. I do this with all programs and install from a third partition. If the disc cannot be read you will find the copy process will probably not complete. 2) I would skip #1 and go directly to http://www.openoffice.org/%5B/url%5D and download a copy of Open Office 2.0 and have a congradulatory beer for improving your mother-in-law’s computing experience. Just remember to set the default save to “.doc” for “Writer”, “.xls” for “Calc” and either “.ppt” or “.pps” for “Impress” and there will be the compatibilty in the files she creates.

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Thanks again guys!

Righty ho….

Popped over to the old M.I.L’s earlier and tried copying the whole CD onto the Hard Disk. It started copying, got to 4% then froze, locking the whole computer. The CD Rom just sat there chuntering away…..had to do a reset.

Previously to all this I had uninstalled Microsoft Works to see if that would help. It didn’t…. M.I.L. needs it to do some invoicing so I needed to re-install it. No problem. It flew in!

Conclusion…..The Office 97 disk is a duffer…or at least is incompatible with the CD Rom on her computer.

I had a look at the ‘openoffice’ download site, but for a dial up account a 70MB download is a bit much! I’ll look into alternative methods of getting my hands on a copy….

In the meantime the Office 97 is going back and another one is being hunted…….fingers crossed.

Again….thanks!

Jimmy

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There is a list of companies that distribute Open Office 2.0 on CDs here . You could have one of them mail you a copy.

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Even on dial-up 70mb is quite doable if you use a Download Manager found at http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/%5B/url%5D then set it up to run at night when you are sleeping. Do not forget to set your computer to stay awake. At the rate of 1mb per 5 minutes you will be done in one night. If it is slower then 2 nights at worst.

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I got a download manager last night and will have a go with it tonight. I’m trying to find a way to stop my dial up from disconnecting after 2 hours…

Jimmy

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HELP!!!

Got the Free Download Manager and can’t work out how to use it! It says, just type in the URL of the file. ?????? What is it? The URL of the download site plus the file name? I have no idea….I’m sure it’s simple enough, but I.m lost….

Jimmy

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Just a guess: go to the site where the download is and right-click the link and copy the location/shortcut. Then paste into your download manager’s dialog. If the link is set up so that you can’t do that, then I’m not sure how you can get the exact location of the file (without starting the download from the web site and doing your best to figure out where it’s coming from ).

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Pesonally, when I used IE with the FDM I had integrated it into the browser so that the file types (zip, rar, exe, etc) that I wanted to download would automatically happen. With that said, the url for the UK for Windows with Java is:

http://download.mirror.ac.uk/sites/sunsite…nstall_wjre.exe

For Windows without Java:

http://download.mirror.ac.uk/sites/sunsite…tel_install.exe

Copy and paste the URL you need into the spot desired.

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Thanks Sinjin. I’d like to know how you know this. I kinda guessed it’d be something like that, but there must be a way of knowing for sure!

I’ll try it tonight.

Jimmy

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Humongous screenshot reduced in size by HansV – please don’t post images over 640×480 pixels in size.

So you want to see how the rabbit comes out of the hat. No real magic here. I just copied the URL out of the box that you are going to put it in. The screenshot (attached) is what my FDM looks like using IE6. I only use IE when I have to. My current browser of choice is a customized Firefox. I also like Opera, as I find it to be the fastest browser, and now that it is free (without ads) I may look under the hood and see how to customize it (a rain day project).

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Brilliant! Screenshots! What a guy!

OK,OK. Bit dumb here, but how did you get the URL in order to type it into the appropriate space, or do you have some automatic way of doing it. Step by step in plain English please.

Thanks again,

Jimmy

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OK!

Using the URL you supplied, I downloaded the Open Office programme. It took nearly 7 hours, but it went smoothly. What a clever wee device download manager is! Had to reconnect three times during the download, but it all kept going very nicely.

I’ll bung the whole thing on a disk and we’ll see if it’ll run OK on her old computer.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks again Sinjin!

Jimmy

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Update.

Popped the Open Office installation files onto a CD and took it the MIL’s. Installed perfectly in minutes! Ticked the boxes during installation that enables the programme to run Microsoft Office files and away you go! She’s lovin’ it!

Absolutely blinking marvellous!!!

Thanks all. Again.

Jimmy

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It looks like you may become the new poster boy for Open Office. Happy it has all worked out.

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All I can say Jimmy, is Brilliant, I am glad your MIL is happy now

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A bit late in the day. very much hope that it turned uout to be a CD-ROM Issue.

If not, you could also try – instead of emptying the Microsoft Shared folder – copying the whole folder elsewhere and then deleting the exiting one. Did you try looking to see whether there was an existing file with the same name as the *.hlp file it was choking over?

HTH

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