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#1
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Word 2002 and Word 2003 trading default file association
I have Windows XP Media Center Edition. Worksuite 2005 came pre-installed
(with Word 2002), and I also installed Office 2003 Student and Teacher (with Word 2003). I'd like to keep both versions running. Everything was fine--Word 2003 opened documents by default, but I could also manually open Word 2002 without any problems. Then I tried to open a really old Microsoft Works Word Processor file I have by double clicking. Well I'm not sure what happened. I can't remember everything about this point, because I was just trying to get going and not paying a lot of attention. I inserted the Works CD at one point when prompted. In any event, now whenever I run Word 2002 I get that "Preparing to Install" box for a few seconds, and Word 2002 becomes the default application for Word files. If I then run 2003 (manually), it gives me the "Preparing to Install" box and becomes the default application again. This didn't happen before trying to open that old Works file. Incidently, I probably shouldn't have inserted the CD when prompted, because I later realized that Word 2003 can open the same really old Microsoft Works Word Processor files, but for some reason it was Word 2002 that wanted to do it. What I'd like to do is get the file applications to stay put, and, if possible, make 2003 take care of the really old files. If 2002 demands to do them by default, I'm okay with that--as long as it doesn't make itself the default program and create this mess again. I already tried searching the knowledge base, and found what *should* have been the answer. I'll paste it. ""Preparing to install..." message starting Word If you have multiple versions of Word installed on your computer, when you start Word 2002, the Windows Installer may run and display a message that it is preparing to install. Note For additional information about how to run multiple versions of Microsoft Word, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 319956 The Answer Wizard and the Help Index tabs appear blank when you use Help in an Office program" When I clicked on the link, it didn't have a thing about setting up multiple versions of Word or the "Preparing to Install" box problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. |
#2
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Actually, it sounds like you were lucky for awhile. Any time you
switch Word versions you will encounter the Windows Installer or a delay in startup. Unfortunately this is not something that can be avoided. When you switch versions the version need to register itself as the 'current version' and recreate some Reg entries and such. I'm not sure how you previously avoided this nuisance. The only workaround is to stick with one version of Word and not start the other unless you absolutely have to. That's what I do anyway. :-) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Enochscion" wrote in message ... I have Windows XP Media Center Edition. Worksuite 2005 came pre-installed (with Word 2002), and I also installed Office 2003 Student and Teacher (with Word 2003). I'd like to keep both versions running. Everything was fine--Word 2003 opened documents by default, but I could also manually open Word 2002 without any problems. Then I tried to open a really old Microsoft Works Word Processor file I have by double clicking. Well I'm not sure what happened. I can't remember everything about this point, because I was just trying to get going and not paying a lot of attention. I inserted the Works CD at one point when prompted. In any event, now whenever I run Word 2002 I get that "Preparing to Install" box for a few seconds, and Word 2002 becomes the default application for Word files. If I then run 2003 (manually), it gives me the "Preparing to Install" box and becomes the default application again. This didn't happen before trying to open that old Works file. Incidently, I probably shouldn't have inserted the CD when prompted, because I later realized that Word 2003 can open the same really old Microsoft Works Word Processor files, but for some reason it was Word 2002 that wanted to do it. What I'd like to do is get the file applications to stay put, and, if possible, make 2003 take care of the really old files. If 2002 demands to do them by default, I'm okay with that--as long as it doesn't make itself the default program and create this mess again. I already tried searching the knowledge base, and found what *should* have been the answer. I'll paste it. ""Preparing to install..." message starting Word If you have multiple versions of Word installed on your computer, when you start Word 2002, the Windows Installer may run and display a message that it is preparing to install. Note For additional information about how to run multiple versions of Microsoft Word, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 319956 The Answer Wizard and the Help Index tabs appear blank when you use Help in an Office program" When I clicked on the link, it didn't have a thing about setting up multiple versions of Word or the "Preparing to Install" box problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. |
#3
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Thanks for the help. I'm assuming that either I didn't notice it before
somehow, or the recent automatic update that was installed for the Windows Installer it what made it start up suddenly. In any event, since it's normal behavior I probably won't worry about it. "Beth Melton" wrote: Actually, it sounds like you were lucky for awhile. Any time you switch Word versions you will encounter the Windows Installer or a delay in startup. Unfortunately this is not something that can be avoided. When you switch versions the version need to register itself as the 'current version' and recreate some Reg entries and such. I'm not sure how you previously avoided this nuisance. The only workaround is to stick with one version of Word and not start the other unless you absolutely have to. That's what I do anyway. :-) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Enochscion" wrote in message ... I have Windows XP Media Center Edition. Worksuite 2005 came pre-installed (with Word 2002), and I also installed Office 2003 Student and Teacher (with Word 2003). I'd like to keep both versions running. Everything was fine--Word 2003 opened documents by default, but I could also manually open Word 2002 without any problems. Then I tried to open a really old Microsoft Works Word Processor file I have by double clicking. Well I'm not sure what happened. I can't remember everything about this point, because I was just trying to get going and not paying a lot of attention. I inserted the Works CD at one point when prompted. In any event, now whenever I run Word 2002 I get that "Preparing to Install" box for a few seconds, and Word 2002 becomes the default application for Word files. If I then run 2003 (manually), it gives me the "Preparing to Install" box and becomes the default application again. This didn't happen before trying to open that old Works file. Incidently, I probably shouldn't have inserted the CD when prompted, because I later realized that Word 2003 can open the same really old Microsoft Works Word Processor files, but for some reason it was Word 2002 that wanted to do it. What I'd like to do is get the file applications to stay put, and, if possible, make 2003 take care of the really old files. If 2002 demands to do them by default, I'm okay with that--as long as it doesn't make itself the default program and create this mess again. I already tried searching the knowledge base, and found what *should* have been the answer. I'll paste it. ""Preparing to install..." message starting Word If you have multiple versions of Word installed on your computer, when you start Word 2002, the Windows Installer may run and display a message that it is preparing to install. Note For additional information about how to run multiple versions of Microsoft Word, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 319956 The Answer Wizard and the Help Index tabs appear blank when you use Help in an Office program" When I clicked on the link, it didn't have a thing about setting up multiple versions of Word or the "Preparing to Install" box problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. |
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