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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
I have an continuing problem because Windows Explorer suddenly stops working. I wait until the error message box pops up and click on “Restart Program.” I have researched and tried several actions, none of which is a lasting solution. Since I really want to stay with Windows 7 to be able to use Office 2003, would reloading everything and starting from scratch be a viable option? If so, could I get and download all the patches Microsoft has issued over the years?
Thanks.
You may also want to consider running SFC /SCANNOW
While I’d normally also suggest doing a scan with DISM I don’t believe Windows 7 supports the ScanHealth option =(
While I can’t really call explorer one of the most stable programs, I’ve had my share of cases where it freezes or crashes over the years, sometimes such instability can be caused by other applications, usually third party ones with some Context Menu Handlers or Shell Service Objects inserted. Before going all out on reinstalling windows you may want to grab Autoruns and then check the Explorer tab inside of Autoruns for non ‘Microsoft Corporation’ additions. Unchecking some of the non-Microsoft ones with autoruns will disable (move) the entries so that after a reboot (or user logout/login) they won’t be active. To restore them you can open Autoruns and re-check them followed by another reboot (or user logout/login). I’d suggest playing with only a few at a time, for instance all items from the same publisher to try and figure out what might be involved (if in fact it is even related to those) Keep in mind that doing this will cause said software entries in explorer to not be available while disabled.
If none of that helps I’d take a good look at the installed software, especially keeping an eye out for overlapping security products, theme and skin managers or anything that ‘adds’ functionality to explorer and consider removing them one at a time followed by a reboot until the freezes stop and you find the culprit (if any). You may want to ensure you have copies of the installers for those program versions before doing so.
If you aren’t going to do a factory restore and are sure you want to re-install windows from scratch you’ll first need to ensure you have a valid disc or an iso, perhaps an OEM one came with the computer? These days they tend not to ship out discs with OEM builds an may instead have the wim stored on the factory recovery partition which won’t be easy to access if you aren’t familiar with diskpart or using some third party tool. You’ll also want to get a copy of your current OEM key saved so you can use it later. Sometimes they’ll have a sticker on the side or back of the case that is a key you could use but won’t actually be the same as the OEM key that came with the PC.
Once you have all that you’ll need to decide if you want to add the updates to the windows image to install it with the updates or let it run for many hours (may still require a manual Servicing Stack and SHA2 or a few others, been a long time since I reinstalled a non-updated version of Windows 7) perhaps even days going through the updates cycle online over and over. Another option would be to update the WIM itself and if you wanted to get started on adding the many updates you can use the Windows Update Catalog to grab them one at a time and apply them to the wim using DISM. There are likely well over 150 of them by now that will apply to the version of your image (and others that won’t) and that’s assuming your image is already containing the ServicePack! Another option to help automate this process would be a third party application, there are a few out there but back before I switched to just using DISM I used NTLite. It’s not entirely free but some aspects of it are and I can’t really recall if updates was one of those free options as I haven’t touched it in several years. I’m sure others here can suggest ones that they like if you think you may take that route.
Since I really want to stay with Windows 7 to be able to use Office 2003,
I know this does not address your main question, but you should know that I (and others) have been successfully running Office 2003 in Windows 10 (currently on version 22H2).
Heck, I”m still using Office 97 Pro under Win10 22H2.
I successfully migrated it from WinME => WinXP => Win7 => Win10 and, even though Win7 & Win10 both “complained” it was incompatible, it still works just fine.
BTW, I did have to install the “Office 2007 Compatibility pack” back in early 2017 while using Win7 so I could open the new .???x versions of Office documents!
There haven’t been any new updates for Office 97 since January 16, 2004 (i.e. WinXP)!
BTW, if you’re installing it from scratch and not “upgrading” an existing installation on an older version of Windows, you’ll also need to download and apply the following updates.
And, in order to read the new .docx and .xlsx file types, you’ll need the.
Note: the download links are from CNET (a reputable download site) because those packages are no longer available directly from Microsoft.
The Office 2007 Compatibility Pack at the download link is dated Mar 19, 2010 and it did get updated several times after it was initially released. The last update on my system is v12.0.6612.1000 which was installed on Jan 16 2017 so Win10 “may” offer to update it after you install it.
If it doesn’t, I’m not sure where a good place to download it from would be (there are a LOT of hits when I googled that version, but many of the sites seems to have “questionable” reputations.)
I don’t recall seeing or installing those Service Releases for my Windows 7 Office 97 installation. My installation CD is probably already updated to include those enhancements, as it’s labeled “SR-2”
Yup! That means it already includes SR-1 and SR-2b.
My Office 97 Professional CD didn’t include them as I purchased it back when it was first released, but I did get it for $150 using my “student discount” vs the $599 “regular price“.
Fyi, the Compatibility Pack version currently on my Win7 machine is apparently 12.0.6787.5000. At least that’s what I see by hovering over excelcnv.exe and Wordcnv.dll
Interesting…
My excelcnv & wordcnv are also 12.0.6787.5000 but Add/Remove programs shows the Compatibility Pack as version 12.0.6612.1000.
FYI, my update history shows a total of 10 updates for the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack.
The latest security updates for “Microsoft Compatibility Pack Service Pack 3” are KB4461607 (installed on 11/24/2021) and KB4018354 (installed on 4/11/2018.)
KB4011717 was installed on 02/14/2018 but it’s called “Security Update for Microsoft Office 2007 suites“, not Microsoft Compatibility Pack.
BTW, I also saved copies of the Office 97 SR-1 & SR-2b updates as well as the 12.0.6612.1000 Compatibility Pack “just in case“.
BTW, you are looking at updates on Win10, right? I guess that would explain why you have KB4461607 from November 2021 (post Win7 end-of-support) while I don’t.
I used Microsoft’s free offer to upgrade from Win7 to Win10 back on Dec 2019 so yeah, that particular security update was installed using Win10. However, it’s still available from the Microsoft Catalog…
And doesn’t indicate it’s intended for any particular version of Windows so I’m a bit surprised it hasn’t been offered to your Win7 system.
but the oldest one, from 6/7/2014, is the original Compatibility Pack itself, not a KB (it says “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack Service”) and the version column for it is blank.
My oldest one, installed on 1/16/2017, also says “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack Service Pack 3 (SP3)” without a version number but, if you look at the “Help link:” for it, you’ll see it actually is a KB update (KB2526308) just not a security update… it updated the existing Compatibility Pack to SP3.
(This is in reply to the top part of your post, about KB4461607. Some day I’ll figure out how to quote just the part I want to include. I assume it involves highlighting. Further, I see that I needed to use Reply somewhere to keep this reply from being removed from the hierarchy. Oh, well…)
Ok, here’s how to do that.
1st, you must click REPLY “immediately below” the specific message you’re replying to so it’ll show up properly in the thread hierarchy.
2nd, go back and highlight the part you want to reply to and then click QUOTE which will cause the highlighted part to appear as a quote in the reply box.
3rd, enter your reply to the quote immediately below the quoted section in the reply box.
If you want to reply to multiple parts of a message and keep them “separated” in your reply like I did, repeat steps 2 & 3 for each new quote/reply you wish to add.
I was dismayed to find what others apparently learned several years back, namely that the Help function doesn’t work since MS stopped supporting Winhlp based help in Win10. And from what I can see, script-based workarounds get wiped out every time there is a feature update (or System File Checker is used). OR, you have to resort to an inconvenient method which requires opening individual .hlp files.
Actually, it’s not that hard to re-enable the .hlp files.
Attached is a small zip file (172KB) created by Komeil Bahmanpour back in 2009 that I “modified” to work for WIn10 using the instructions provided by MarkLongmire in this can’t open .hlp files with windows 10 thread.
What it does is install the winhlp32.exe (from Win7 x64) that’s needed to open the old style .hlp files. Simply extract the contents and then run Install.cmd as Administrator.
And you’re right that it sometimes needs to be reapplied, but only when you update to a new feature release (i.e. 20H2 ⇒ 21H2, 21H2 ⇒ 22H2, etc., etc.) or if you run SFC (monthly updates normally don’t override it.) In my case, I added it to the batch file I created that restores a lot of “tweaks” I’ve made to my Win10 that runs every time I boot/restart my PC.
BTW, you do not have to restart your PC for the change to take effect. You’ll be able to open the Office 97 help menus (or help menus in other programs that still use the old style .hlp files) immediately after you run the cmd file!
Captain Al, after you moved Office 2003 over to Windows 10 (from 7?), were able to somehow apply any or all of the security patches that had been issued for it over the years? If so, how?
A secondary question: Did you have to fully uninstall Office 2003 (which for me is solely Outlook, BTW) before you could begin using it on Windows 10? I am currently on Windows 7 but will be getting a new Win 10 computer soon. While I have no intention of continuing to use Outlook 2003 in Win 7 after migrating, it would be nice to still have the old installation available for a short time as reference when trying to replicate my old Outlook 2003 formats and settings onto the new Win 10 machine. IOW, is it a “you have X days to enter the product key” situation, or a “no overlap time whatsoever” situation?
I didn’t exactly “move” Office 2003, but rather I did a new (fresh) install.
Here are a some “notes” regrding the install:
As to “Authentication”, I just put in the key at installation time and, apparently because the software is so long-in-the-tooth, Microsoft automatically activates it immediately just by clicking the do it “over the internet” option. (So no uninstall from the other machine will be necessary).
Hope this helps. (BTW, if it hasn’t been said in this thread already, my memory is that to successfully use Outlook 2003 in Windows 10 may require some addtitonal configuring/kludges. Be sure and search for it … sorry I can’t help with that part but I no longer use Outlook.)
I had Office 2003 running on my Win10 Pro desktop until a Windows update crashed my system to the point I had to run a reset and lost all of my programs. I still have the original cd, but when trying to install it, I keep getting a message that it is looking for L2561412.CAB and will not proceed. I tried searching on that missing cab file, but I am getting no help. Any ideas how to get this installed again, or do I just go to something else?
Thanks
Ron
I have that “L2561412.CAB” file located in my “MSOCache” folder, which is one that is put on the machine after an install, at least as long as you’ve chosen the option to leave them on your computer.
My experience is that the MSOCache folder is the same for all Office 2003 installs, so it could be copied from elsewhere. (Note that there is an “MSOCache Relocator” utility that can be run in the event Office gets ‘lost’ trying to find it.)
If all else fails, PM me and I’ll zip an MSOCache folder up and send it to you.
Let me know how to pm, if you’re still willing to help out.
I’ve only sent a PM here once, but here’s what the steps appear to be:
That should do it.
PM sent
The time finally came to “move” Outlook 2003 from my Win7 Pro machine to my new Win10 Pro
You’ve done a marvelous job of fleshing out some impotant “additional” documentation which will be very valuable to someone in else who is performing an Office 2003 install.
Good work!
[Moderator edit] reduced quote to a brief snippet. To quote a section, highlight the section and then click Quote.
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