I have a PC with OS Windows XP and would like to install office 97 only to run the Access 97. But it's failed.
Not working.
Can anybody help me? Thank you.

We're going to need some more information:

At what point does it fail?

Do you receive any error messages?

Could you post some info on your system?


Thanks,

~psi42

I have the same problem. The auto-run kicks in and the install wizard starts up.

When the "Install Office 97" button is pressed and error box pops up.
It reads:

16 bit Windows Subsystem

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Any help is apprieciated. This is a program they are running at work and therefore I need to run it at home, if I have any chance of lounging at home instead of having to go into the office.

Thanks.

I have 4 versions of Office running on my XP Pro PC(97, 2K XP and 2003). If you already have a newer version of Office, uninstall that, install 97 then reinstall your newer version.

If that doesn't work, Right clikc on the SETUP.EXE file and select compatibility mode then run it under WIN 9x.

Tried the compaitbility mode thing but it locked up my machine. Going to try the uninstall office XP and install 97 first option as my last resort... Can't find a word on the net about doing this as it appears everyone else is running Office 97 and Office XP together all ready. I'll let you know how the uninstall and reinstall goes...

Okay, uninstalled 2003 and tried to install 97. Still fails in the install with "MS Office is not installed". Tried running excel and word and it complains about missing registry keys. I suspect that office 97 is getting blocked by registry security in XP. I assume if you install under win2000 and the upgrade to XP you will be okay as the registry has been created all ready... I am not going to roll back the os and do an upgrade!! I don't have 7 or 8 days to reinstall everything I need!! Thank you Microsoft...

Again, I'm surprised by this. I got a new PC recently (last Nov). I installed 97, 2K, XP and 2003 in order and all work fine. I would make sure you uninstall all versions of Office completely, even to removing the folders. Then reinstall making sure that you install each into its own folder.

I'm seeing a lot of this at work. The solution to most of them is to remove a piece of adware known as Winad Client (it may appear under slightly different names) in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs.

A Downloader Trojan (TrojanDownloader.Win32.Dia.a)* placed the program
The machines. This is the program that has been removing autoexec.nt.

Then go to C:\WINDOWS\REPAIR , copy and paste the AUTOEXE.NT file into the SYSTEM32 folder.

You should do a full spyware/adware cleaning of the hard drive with the utilities that many of the experts here recommend.

Let me know if that fixes it for you.

I have looked at the autoexec.nt file and it is fine. I have a good spy sweeping program and it runs once a day. As for the other stuff, I have visited ms office community and posted and researched and found one solution that I can not do. It says to remove SP2 for XP but in my case it is rolled with my OEM install and I can not uninstall SP2. I still am having no luck...

Don't ask me 100% but I have access 97 working at the moment. I am re-installing 2003 as I write this. There are 2 differences I made this trip. I renamed the Microsoft office folder in the program files directory to something else completely. I ran setup and it bombed on me again but with a different error. I was using my account which has domain admins and by default should be part of the local adim group... I then logged in as local admin and reinstalled and it bombed again but with another error accwiz.dll failure. I then tried access and to my surprise it ran up fine! I changed the ms office name back to its original name as a created a unique name for the 97 install. I re-installed 2003 and just tested it now and it seems to be working. The 2003 install even recognized that access 97 was installed and wanted to delete it. So, in the end, who knows but it is working for me for now. I assume if I try to use the wizzards I might have a little problem but in this case I don't have to...

Thanks all and good luck to then next poor sole trying to install access 97 on XPSP2...

Hmmm, My install was on SP2.

Hi Folks,

Hope some still have an eye on this thread. I'm also struggling to get Office '97 Pro, in particular Access, to work on my new (Dell OEM WinXP SP2) machine.

So far:

Install with all components and subcomponents selected runs through to an "htmlmarq.ocx was unable to register itself in the system registry" error. This is followed by a message indicating that the Access install could not complete successfully. My only option at this point ended the install process.

The results of the above were no new program group or icons, but a subfolder with .exe's which worked.. . Mostly (i.e. Access opens, but occasionally has an OS level error which forces it to close. Also, attempts to convert .mdb's from earlier versions either have no result whatsoever, or cause the program to stop responding.)

I'll stop there. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks!

A.Y.

Many new machines come with a trial version of Office preinstalled. That could be what is interfering with installing Office 97. My only suggestion would be to completely remove all versions of Office and then trying to reinstall Office 97.

Thanks ScottGem for the quick response.

TRIAL VERSION OF OFFICE?: My machine came with Corel's WordPerfect 12. It hit me with a teaser screen for "upgrade" to Corel's office (which I couldn't turn off) for awhile. Other than that, though, there was no evidence of preloaded office products or trials.

HTMLMARQ.OCX WAS UNABLE TO REGISTER ITSELF: I found a fix at:

http://forums.whatpc.co.uk/thread.jsp?forum=12&thread=53361

Though I took the recommended step of renaming the modified registry keys after Office 97 successfully installed, I suspect this may cause prob's down the road. I'll keep tabs and post back here if I learn anything new.

MY NEW "?": After use of the above htmlmarq.ocx related fix the Office 97 Pro install ran through to normal completion. Access still refuses to convert .mdb's from previous versions (i.e. v 2.0 and v 7.0).

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this. I'm enjoying the chance to trade trials and tribulations!

A.Y.