OFF97: Files May Be Removed from Server During Installation

ID: Q168068

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
Microsoft Office for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
Microsoft Office for Windows, versions 4.2, 4.2c, 4.3, 4.3c

SYMPTOMS

When you run the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program, you may receive the following alert message:

The Microsoft Office Upgrade Wizard has detected one or more Office
4.x or 95 components on your computer. Removing these components is
recommended and will not affect your existing data.

Remove ALL old Office 4.x and 95 components now?

If you click Yes, the Setup program may remove files that belong to earlier versions of Microsoft Office from the network server. This may cause problems for other users who continue to use the earlier versions of Microsoft Office.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

You installed Microsoft Office 97 on a computer on which an earlier version of Microsoft Office was installed.

-and-

The earlier version of Microsoft Office was installed from an administrative installation point on a network server.

-and-

You have administrative rights (this includes read, write, create, delete, and rename permissions) to the folder on the network server that contains the administrative installation of the earlier version of Microsoft Office.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Setup Removed the Items

If users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office begin receiving error messages because files have been removed from the network server by the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program, follow these steps:

Remove the administrative installation of Microsoft Office from the network server.

From a workstation, perform a new administrative installation of the earlier version of Microsoft Office to the same folder on the network server that contained previous administrative installation of Microsoft Office.

NOTE: It is very important that you use the same folder name; otherwise, everyone who uses the earlier version of Microsoft Office may have to reinstall Microsoft Office.

Method 2: Setup Has Not Yet Removed the Items

To prevent this problem from occurring, verify that no user or administrator has full access to the folder that contains the earlier version of Microsoft Office. After the administrative installation of Microsoft Office is finished, you need only read-only access to the folder to install Microsoft Office.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Office 97. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 97 for Windows, Service Release 1 (SR-1).

For additional information about SR-1, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q172475 OFF97: How to Obtain and Install MS Office 97 SR-1

Additional query words: OFF97 OFF95 OFF4 OFF43 OFF42


Keywords          : kbsetup offwin offwinsetup offadmin offupgrade offrfs 
Version           : WINDOWS:4.2,4.2c,4.3,4.3c,7.0,7.0a,97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 26, 1999