Another Vista issue

[willyb21]

Hello I have searched for a fix for a few days and hoped you might be able to help or at least tell me I can't do this. We are beginning to move toward Vista as we buy new PCs but we have to use Access 97 as it is the only version that works with our Accounting and Sales Software which uses mainly Foxpro tables. Office 97 installs fine on Vista Home Premium but when I go to install the Office 97 Service Release 2 or 2b I get an error message stating "the patch did not complete successfully. For more information, see the log file. Bla..Bla bla. Contact technical support for assistance" I read through the log file and it seems to fail when trying to fonts into a temp Directory. Would Changing the ownership on the Fonts allow The SR2 to install? I changed a few of the permissions on several fonts and the install seems to go further but there are so many fonts to take ownership of and just doing the Font Directory doesn't seem to do the job. I appreciate any input you can offer. I found that after the fonts it starts into system files so I really don't want to have to take ownership of those. On a side note would Slipstreaming SR2 into the installation of Office 97 maybe allow it to install? If it is possible how would one go about doing such a thing. I have created Slipstreamed disks for Windows 2000 Pro and SP4 and XP Pro with SP2 but I cannot find any info here or on Google to accomplish this.
Sorry for windy post but I am trying to get all info you need to assist me.

Thanks
Will

 

[Smilin]

Permissions and other security restrictions may indeed be an issue. Altering permissions may do the trick but as you seem to already recognize it's a bad idea. If you choose to take ownership of the folder be sure any permissions that were already there get added back (ie System! ).

Going forward I would view this as a workaround not a fix. If you intend to roll out Vista on a wide scale include some other upgrades in your planning. Office 97 is a decade old now and afaik no longer gets any updates including security updates.






ps: we don't mind long posts... just use some paragraphs

 

[stash]

Yeah Office 97 is definitely End of Life, and has been for quite awhile now. http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2507

It's what, over a decade old now? It's crusty But seriously, running O97 is also a gigantic security risk. Who knows how many unpatched vulnerabilities there are. It hasn't had a security update in five years.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: stash
Yeah Office 97 is definitely End of Life, and has been for quite awhile now. http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2507

It's what, over a decade old now? It's crusty But seriously, running O97 is also a gigantic security risk. Who knows how many unpatched vulnerabilities there are. It hasn't had a security update in five years.

You are right but his company isn't alone. My company still has Office 97 on all of our machines also. I guess we are too cheap to pay to have the custom Access stuff re-written in a newer format.

 

[willyb21]

Thanks for the Quick Response Smilin and stash. I appreciate you guys taking the time to offer help but until we can get a new Accounting and Sales system we are stuck with 97. So any ideas on how we can get SR2 to install? It fixes a memory issue 97 has when running over a certain amount of Ram. The program cannot understand that amount and crashes it happens in Win2K and XP Pro as well but we can run the update to fix it. Any Ideas? Even if you don't have any thanks for the replies

Will

 

[Smilin]

I feel like I'm helping you load the gun to shoot yourself.

This was bugged some time ago but I do not think it will ever be fixed. Office 97 is just too old to invest resources into.

That said it appears it's failing due to trying to replace the tahoma (tahoma.ttf) system font. Maybe that will give you a starting point. Backup, delete, install, restore sort of thing maybe. I dunno.

I would really suggest you put your foot down though. The age of your software has finally caught up with you and you are on the threshhold of being left behind as newer software will no longer be compatible. Until stash looked it up I didn't know that 5 years has elapsed since the last security update. That's scary dude. Tell management that.

 

[willyb21]

Well thanks Smilin. I don't think what I say will have much weight since security to them means a password that is easy to remember like their first name. Since my immediate boss just got his first vista machine and he can't do any development with access so either we update all our software or I spend the rest of my life trying to find a fix. Anyway thanks again