Mixed up Offices

[GTC]

Will MS Access 2002 sit comfortably on an XP workstation with Office 2000 and MS Access 97?

In other words, if I migrate our XP Pro/A97 workstations to Office 2000, and then upgrade to A2002, will office or A97 break?

Our whole Office 97 package needs to be upgraded. A docs department doesn't want Word 2002 but our programmers want Access 2002 but I need to know of any pitfalls before hand.

 

[Calvin]

I run Acc97 and Acc2k on the same boxes (Win2k and WinXP) and the only a couple of issues when doing so, make sure that Acc97 is installed FIRST! Sometimes (not always) if 97 is installed after 2k there are common file problems. Make sure their installed in separate folders, not the same c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\, try c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 97\ and c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 2k\.

There is very little difference between file formats of 2k and 2k2 and you should not see any problems there. If you try opening a 97 db on 2k or later it will want to convert it everytime you open it and if you accidently do, 97 can no longer view/open it, you will have to manually convert it back to 97 (which you can do under database utilities in 2k and later).

If you choose not to convert the file from 97 to 2k you will not be able to edit any of the forms, controls, queries, modules, anything while viewing it in 2k, only open forms, run queries, and update data.

Another anoyance is if your used to opening a file by double clicking on it, which ever version of access that was used last is the default msaccess.exe and will be used to open the file regardless of which version the file is formatted for. To get around this either open the version of access you wish to work in and then open the desired file or create custom shortcuts that have a formated command line that references the version of access nessissary for the associated db file. Check you help file for info on command line structure.

Another thought is if you don't need a user to have a fully licensed version of Access, you can install the Access Runtime which is basically a viewer for mdb/mde files, (works better with mde). So the user may have the Access 97 Runtime and a fully lisenced Access 2000. The runtime would allow them to open and utilize legacy db files but not develop in it, while the Fully lisenced 2000 is available for developing new files.

 

[GTC]

Thanks.

What version of Word/Excel were you using? If they were 97, did installing A2000 introduce performance/stability issues?

I hope to eventually have
AC 97
AC 2002
WD 2000
EXCL 2000
on XP Pro

Then phase out the AC97 by uninstalling them one at a time (600+ PC's) when and only when it is determined those PC's don't access any A97 mdb's.

 

[Calvin]

I have several develop and test workstations, my three primary workstations are below:

Win2k:
-Access 97
-Access 2000
-Excel 97
-Excel 2000
-Word 2000
-Outlook 2000

Win NT4:
-Access 97
-Access 2000
-Excel 97
-Word 97
-Outlook 97

Win XP Pro:
-Access 97
-Access 2000
-Access 2002
-Excel 2002
-Word 2002
-Outlook 2002

I haven't had any problems between Excel/Word/Outlook in different generations of the office package.

We generally don't uninstall an app unless the user requests it or wait for when the workstation crashes and has to be reimaged we just dont' put it back on. The time and manpower to tackle that isn't justifiable, when it doesn't hurt anything to leave it be. So what if the user doesn't use it, if it's not broke or causing a problem, don't mess with it.

Good luck.

 

[GTC]

Thanks for that.

I think our main motivation in uninstalling Access 97 is to ensure that all future MDB's are created in A2002 and not A97. I could of course just remove the icon's from the PC so that only the most determined user's could launch A97 but since this requires a visit to the PC regardless then I may as well uninstall whilst there. We have ActiveDirectory and locked-down XP workstations so I'll ask our in-house tech guru's if there is anyway of rolling out A2k2 and at the same time, disabling A97 in one hit.

Since my first post, I've discovered MS Knowledge Base Article 290291 that suggests I can install A2002, leave all the back-ends as A97 MDB's and then suppress the "Convert/Open Database" dialog box.

This would mean I can switch end-user's to A2002, suppress this dialog, not bothering to convert the mdb's and most of them wouldn't be impacted.

All I need now is to determine what functions/references aren't used by A2002 and identify the mdb's this will impact on and convert those manually (or use some tool that I can't affort!!). I know that MS DAO 2.5/3.5 Compat Lib isn't supported but I'm sure there are more dll/controls affected.

 

[Calvin]

Sounds like you've got a good handle on your technology.

Keep in mind if you suppress the notification to to convert 97 to 2k2, you may confuse the user's nor will they be able to make changes to the objects and controls of the 97 db only update the data tables.

good luck,