Problems with Office 2007 on Windows 11 1

[pjw001]

I had posted this on the Microsoft: Office forum but there are no responses after three days so am posting it here.

I am having problems accessing Word and Excel files via File Explorer on Windows 11 and am hoping that someone may have a solution.

I have spent a fair bit of time searching the web for solutions and it seems that the problem also relates to later versions of Office. Have tried some of the solutions that did not seem too risky.

Word

.doc and .docx Click on the file and a pop-up opens, out of site, with the message "Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable." The folder specified does exist and has at least one recently created file.

Click OK to close the pop-up and then right-click on the file and select Open. Word opens with the "File in use" pop-up and options to open read only, create a local copy or receive a notification when the file becomes available. Selecting the first gives another error message and leaves WINWORD.EXE running and I have to kill this with Task Manager. (I did get a complete system crash and think that it is this last action that caused the crash.)

Now right click on the file again and it opens OK. Close the file. WINWORD.EXE is still running but does not appear in the task bar or desktop.

At some point in all this a pop-up appeared saying “Word cannot open the existing file. (Normal.dotm)”.

In all of this the preview pane is either blank or showing the message “This file can’t be previewed.”

I now seem to be able to open both file types without problems.

Excel

Clicking on a file in File Explorer for either a .xls or .xlsx file and the message “This file can’t be previewed.” is displayed in the preview pane.

Apart from that there don't seem to be any problems. (Famous last words!)

 

[spamjim]

Should there be any surprise that a 15-year-old product has weakened support on their current OS? ...especially when they are trying to migrate everyone to a subscription payment for Office?

Unless you're deep in the VBA, consider a more modern tool, like LibreOffice.

https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice/

 

[pjw001]

Did I say I was surprised? If anything surprised me it was that it actually installed and seemed to run, albeit with a few problems.

When searching the internet for solutions I got the impression that later versions of Office (2016 and possibly later) had similar problems on Windows 11.

I have been considering using LibreOffice and have tried it on another pc. The installation did mess with my Office 2007 installation, which rather put me off. It's probably just a matter of biting the bullet and get on with using LibreOffice. Is there a LibreOffice forum on Tek-Tips? I looked but could not fimd one.

 

[goombawaho]

I'm using Office 2003 on Windows 10 and no problems. So it could be something NEW to Windows 11. Yes, I am embarrassed to be using Office 2003.

 

[pjw001]

Why are you embarrassed? If it does what you want why should you upgrade. My car predates Office 2003 and I have no plans to replace it.

Perhaps WordStar will run on Windows 11. I'm sure I've got a floppy disc somewhere!

 

[spamjim]

There can be merit in older Office versions. Microsoft has been known to remove features it no longer wants to support. For example, Office 2016 with Publisher, no longer supports CMYK color. I hate Publisher but in the rare occasion that I need to use it, it must support CMYK color.

There is also merit in avoiding older Office versions. There have been some significant security updates to Office over the years. I would not trust older versions to open Office documents supplied by others. There are lots of fun ways to exploit a system with a Word document.

For LibreOffice, there's an active forum at

https://ask.libreoffice.org/c/english/5

The messing with Office 2007 may have just been it trying to take over file associations for common MS Office formats like DOCX, XLSX, etc. There should be a way to avoid that in the detailed settings of the LibreOffice installer.

 

[goombawaho]

Why am I embarrassed for running an ancient version of Office? Because I am an IT guy and................. what he said.


It's pretty plumb dumb to be using operating systems and/or programs for which there are no security updates. You are wide open to exploits. But, it's kind of like russian roulette with a gun with 1000 chambers and only one bullet. Your chances are pretty good, but the results could be disastrous. Do what you want, but allow me to laugh at you if you get nailed. I would have to laugh at myself too.

 

[mikrom]

In the past I've also had trouble installing some older software on Windows 10.
The workaround was not to install the software in the default folder C:\Program Files, but to create my own folder, e.g. C:\programs and install the software there. It seemed that Windows 10 treated the permissions on the Program Files folder in a special way.
I haven't had any experience with Windows 11, but if I were you, I would try to install the software in a folder I created myself beforehand. Maybe it could help.

 

[mikrom]

Hi pjw001,
Did it help to install Office 2007 in other folder than Program Files ?

 

[pjw001]

mikrom,
My apologies - I thought that I had posted that I had decided to uninstall Office 2007 and use LibreOffice.

This will no doubt cause me other problems.

 

[spamjim]

Trying to install older versions of Office with well-known security vulnerabilities in a non-standard, poorly secured location is inviting trouble with a flashing neon sign. You're on the right path with modern software.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

Microsoft has the answer.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/of...le-previews-file-explorer-switching-to-32-bit

General Geek

 

[pjw001]

Sadly, it does not have the answer.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

Then start looking into the event logs. Perhaps some permissions on a folder has gone smelly.

General Geek

 

[pjw001]

Could not see anything that seemed relevant there.

 

[goombawaho]

How do you tell a customer that they shouldn't still be running Windows 7 or Windows 10 after October 2025? People like to dismiss the risk. I've got a customer who owns a tax and accounting business and her sister wouldn't stop using Internet Explorer, didn't want to update QuickBooks and said that we didn't need to replace Windows 10 after end of support. First of all, who is she to comment (not the business owner) and not an IT person. I hate to dump people because they won't upgrade, but it's also a CYA issue if they get infected/ransomware etc. Sorry for hijacking thread - this thread has twanged my brain.

 

[pjw001]

What is a "CYA issue"?

 

[Andrzejek]

Goombawaho, how about the other way around?
How do you tell a Management (of a large state agency) that is time to upgrade? They are pretty good with OS upgrades, but not with other stuff. For last 18 years (yes, eighteen years!) I was suggesting upgrade our huge app from VB6 to something more ‘Microsoft friendly’ (and supported by MS), like VB.NET Even though app is still running, but it needs Windows 7 for maintenance (Win10 just makes a mess in IDE). And now – suddenly - there are security risks with a machine with Win7


---- Andy

"Hmm...they have the internet on computers now"--Homer Simpson

 

[goombawaho]

CYA issue" = Cover Your Rear End. Meaning you have to make customers aware of potential security issues. Whether they address the issue is another story.