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windows 8 and office 2003

Discussion in 'Legacy Windows' started by trex604, 2013/11/24.

  1. 2013/11/24
    trex604

    trex604 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Will my office 2003 install on a windows 8 or 8.1 new machine should I have to get a new laptop? I have the full program with outlook,excel,etc.
     
  2. 2013/11/24
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Hi trex604. Yes Office 2003 works fine on Windows 8/8.1.
     

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  4. 2013/11/24
    trex604

    trex604 Inactive Thread Starter

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    thanks for the quick reply.
     
  5. 2013/11/24
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    No problem. :)

    Do you have any other questions?
     
  6. 2013/11/24
    trex604

    trex604 Inactive Thread Starter

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    not now but if I ever have to get a new laptop I'm sure I will. Thanks. resolved for now.
     
  7. 2013/11/24
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Thanks for letting me know.
     
  8. 2013/11/25
    Bill

    Bill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Whoa! Microsoft clearly reports Office 2003 applications are not compatible with Windows 8!
    Now there is some conflicting data on this - including from Microsoft's own compatibility center. But there are definite reports of errors during installation and running of Office 2003 applications on Windows 8. And it is also clear Microsoft has moved on from this 10 year old suite. All support for Office 2003 will end April 8, 2014. This means any current unreported, and newly discovered security issues with any Office 2003 application will NOT be patched. It also means any future updates and changes to Windows 8.1 will not be tested to ensure compatibility with legacy Office 2003 applications.

    Therefore, I recommend you consider upgrading to a newer version of Office. I am currently running Office 2007 and Outlook 2007 on this W8.1 system with no problems.

    Alternatively, you might try one of the many free Office alternatives. LibreOffice seems edge out OpenOffice due to the developers commitment to keep it current. However, neither have an Email application so if you really like Outlook (my choice since Outlook 97) you can purchase it separately.

    It is better to do this now when you can plan the migration instead of at the last minute.
     
    Bill,
    #7
  9. 2013/11/25
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    I have been running Office 2003 on Win 8 Pro with NO problems. Support for it will be ending in April 2014 just like it is for Win XP.
     
  10. 2013/11/25
    trex604

    trex604 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Sorry Bill but I have no choice. I am a seasoned citizen on a very small fixed income and while I would like to upgrade to the new and better office I can't so I am going to try and limp along with this old laptop as long as possible but it will surely fail before I do so I have to make do with my current programs.
     
  11. 2013/11/25
    Bill

    Bill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    :) Nicely put, and as a boomer, I can sure relate. That said, there are free alternatives. As I noted, LibreOffice is totally free, and compatible with Office and W8. And for email, there are several free alternatives there too. Although I prefer Outlook, I use Thunderbird on my notebook.

    Good to hear! But sadly, it seems others are not so lucky and with support ending, that scenario is not likely to get any better.
     
  12. 2013/11/25
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    I have confirmed that Office 2003 does indeed work fine on Windows 8.1.

    I have installed it on about half a dozen machines for clients who have Windows 8.1 installed and they haven't reported any problems. Maybe some users are having issues due to other programs that are interfering with Office 2003 in some way but I haven't come across any issues with Office 2003 on Windows 8.1 yet.

    As the cut off date for Office 2003 looms closer this is something to consider but some clients have told me that they don't care for change and want to still use the familiar Office suit. A lot of senior citizens are used to the 2003 version and would have a hard time using 2007 or 2010.
     
  13. 2013/11/26
    Bill

    Bill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    I deal with a lot of "senior" senior citizens (considering I am a "senior" myself, I am referring to those more "senior" than me) and the learning curve from 2003 to 2007 is not hard to deal with. The only hard time using the new Office suite is really dealing with "senior stubbornness ". :( Being a senior myself perhaps gives me an advantage in dealing with "senior seniors ". The big resistance I see is due to the fact many seniors are on a fixed income and upgrading their OS, and often the hardware to support it and then a new Office suite on top of that is a budget buster, not to mention significant source of stress.

    That said, most seniors understand that security is important. They MUST move away from their beloved XP so if they can deal with that learning curve, they can deal with migrating to Office 2007, or 2010, or even 2013. I mean really - how many seniors these days actually create new Word documents using Words "enhanced" features? Or Excel spreadsheets. Typically, they write notes, or maybe use and update already existing spreadsheets. If they still are generating new documents and spreadsheets, they are still sharp enough (and are likely willing) to learn how to use Office 2007/10 to stay safe. They may need help converting current 2003 documents to the newer file type, but after that they should have no problems.

    Let's face it, Wordpad is pretty simple, fully capable of creating fairly complex Word-type (and Office compatible) documents, and is already included in W7 and W8.

    The issue is security after all and sadly, thanks to the badguys security MUST trump convenience. Even if it is our (as helpers/providers) convenience that is compromised showing them how to do it, again, and maybe again.

    Now granted security with Office 2003 programs is not near the issue as XP security, but it is still a problem. I note just yesterday, Department of Homeland Security's US-CERT Cyber Security Vulnerability Summary Bulletin SB13-329 reported 1 "High" (their most severe) "new" vulnerability for Word 2003. And Bulletin SB13-322 from the week before reported 3 "new" vulnerabilities for Office 2003 products.

    It is CRITICAL we all understand those are "reported" vulnerabilities and it is also CRITICAL to note in security circles it is assumed badguys are waiting to release malicious code to exploit a cache of "unreported" vulnerabilities until after support ends this coming April.
    I recommend anyone interested in cyber security (which should be everyone, IMO) sign up for the weekly US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin Alerts - especially if others rely on your advice to stay secure. This can be done via the "Subscribe to Alerts" section at the bottom of either of those links I provided.

    So kudos to you, trex604 :), for upgrading to a modern, secure operating system. But sadly, that is not enough. We all must also upgrade our applications too. I note Office 2013 (download version) is available now for $113 - however, it does not include Outlook. Outlook 2013 can be purchased separately for $94 or you can save some money by getting the Office Home and Business 2013 version, which also includes Outlook for $177. Alternatively, there are the totally free products mentioned earlier.

    Unfortunately, the cost of progress can be expensive. But when driven by the misdeeds of badguys, it also becomes necessary.
     
  14. 2013/11/26
    James Martin

    James Martin Geek Member

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    If seniors have a relative enrolled in college (or are enrolled themselves), maybe they could pay them to purchase one of the Office suites offered at discounts to students...

    http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/edu

    I purchased Office 2007 Ultimate for only 69.99 in 2008 through this portal when I was enrolled at a local college. The license allows me to install Office on one desktop and one laptop.


    EDIT: These offers are for grade school students as well - including faculty & staff. The current offers end on December 31st, but there will be new offers next year.
     
    Last edited: 2013/11/26
  15. 2013/11/26
    trex604

    trex604 Inactive Thread Starter

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    I really appreciate all the input but as I near 80 I really don't need anything fancy and just want to continue using my Win 7 home laptop with 2003 and hope it lasts as long as I do since it is working. My only concern was is if it takes a dump I would have to learn 8 on another machine and all my work is on 2003. It locked up a month ago and I had to take it to a doctor who fixed it and put several free programs on it to keep it tuned up.
     
  16. 2013/11/26
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    I, as others, would like to know what these FREE programs that the Doctor put on it are?
     
  17. 2013/11/26
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    That's fine, you can keep using Office 2003 but you will need to move to a newer version of Microsoft Office or use one of the free alternatives that Bill mentioned before April 8, 2014 in order to help keep your system secure.
     
  18. 2013/11/27
    trex604

    trex604 Inactive Thread Starter

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    free to me but they are probably in the bill. two were malware finders, one is a defragger supposedly better than windows and really keep the fragments in line, one was a hard disc sentinel, and a ccleaner which i haven't tried yet since i don't get it too dirty. The doctor is our local IT person used by our local gov. and businesses. This is a very small rural county many miles from the big cities. It seems to be a lot zippier without all those bad things I saw he removed. I also have the free Avast virus program that also warns me of potential threats.
     
  19. 2013/11/27
    Bill

    Bill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Not necessary. The one with Windows is just fine.
     
  20. 2013/11/27
    Bill

    Bill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    To my above comment, understand the second, and I mean that quite literally, the second you start to use Windows after defragging, fragmentation begins all over again. This is because Windows and your other apps are constantly opening files, saving temporary files, modifying/updating files, and closing files. Any time a file is updated or changed, its size changes too. So any advantage a 3rd party application has is quickly negated.

    Also, understand the purpose of defragging is to make loading files from a hard drive quicker by minimize the need and time for the read/write head to move about picking up the fragments. This was a problem long ago and far away when (1) drives were much smaller, (2) drives had very small buffers, (3) drives had slower access and read times, (4) disk space was much more expensive per byte, and (5) systems had small amounts of RAM.

    If you have lots of free disk space (and with today's disk prices, there's little excuse not to), the system will be able to keep file most of the file segments together.

    If you are critically low on disk space, it makes little sense to download and install a 3rd party program that (1) takes up more of that precious space for (2) just a temporary amount of time.

    More importantly, when it comes to Windows 7 and even more so with Windows 8, using any defragger other than Windows own WILL degrade your computer's performance! This is because Windows 7, and particularly Windows 8 uses Windows own defragger (now called by the function, "Optimize Drives ") in conjunction with Windows "prefetch" features to optimize performance based on YOUR computer usage. For example, if you regularly call up Word, Windows will use Optimize Disks to defrag and move applicable Word files to where they can be loaded more quickly. So it really makes no sense today to use a 3rd party defragging tool.

    CCleaner is by far, one of my favorite programs. But the reality is, Windows own Disk Cleanup program is quite capable of keeping our hard drives tidy and clean of clutter. But again, if free disk space is critically low, it make no sense to download and install yet another program that takes up more space.
     
  21. 2013/11/27
    James Martin

    James Martin Geek Member

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    CCleaner makes a portable (USB) version of the their popular cleaning tool. Provided the PC has an available USB port.
     

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