OFF97: How to Reinstall Office 97 After Installing Outlook 98

ID: Q183264

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

When you install Microsoft Outlook 98 on a computer that has Microsoft Office 97 installed on it, under certain circumstances, problems may occur if you reinstall Office. This article explains when these problems will occur and how to avoid them.


MORE INFORMATION

If Outlook 97 is removed from the Office installation using Add/Remove Programs, the Outlook shortcuts (Message, Appointment, Task, Contact, Journal entry, and Note) are not removed from the Office Shortcut Bar (OSB) during Setup. After uninstalling Outlook 97, if you click any of the Outlook 97 shortcuts on the OSB, Microsoft Access 97 will start. This occurs because shortcuts are not removed from the OSB when it is not running, and it is not running during Office 97 Setup.

When Outlook 98 is installed, part of Setup removes the information about Outlook 97 from the Office Setup information file, Off97Std.stf (or Off97Pro.stf, if you installed the Professional edition). This ensures that a reinstallation of Office 97 will not overwrite Outlook 98. However, the information about the Outlook 97 OSB shortcuts cannot be removed by Outlook 98 Setup. Reinstallation of Office 97 completes successfully despite several Object ID errors which reference the shortcuts, but these errors make an unattended setup impossible.

Both Outlook 97 and the OSB must be included in the Office 97 installation for the reinstall problem to occur. If either one is not installed, an upgrade to Outlook 98 and a reinstallation of Office 97 can be performed without any errors. Or, if either Outlook 97 or the OSB is removed from the Office 97 installation prior to installing Outlook 98, Office 97 reinstallation occurs without error.

NOTE: The OSB can be reinstalled after Outlook 98 has been installed with no problems.

Before modifying the Off97Std.stf (or Off97Pro.stf), Outlook 98 Setup creates a backup of the file named Off97Std.st_ (or Off97Pro.st_).

If it is not possible to remove the OSB or Outlook 97 prior to installing Outlook 98, you can install Outlook 98, rename the Off97Std.stf (or Off97Pro.stf) which was modified, and then rename Off97Sstd.st_ to Off97Std.stf (or rename Off97Pro.st_ to Off97Pro.stf).

To rename the files, follow these steps:

  1. Close all Office programs.


  2. Click Start, point to Find, and click Files Or Folders.


  3. Type *.stf in the Named box, select the drive that contains your Office programs, click to select Include Subfolders, and click Find Now.


  4. Click Off97Std.stf (or Off97Pro.stf), and on the File menu, click Rename.


  5. Change the .stf file extension to .old, and press ENTER.


  6. Type *.st_ in the Named box, and click Find Now.


  7. Click Off97Std.st_ (or Off97Pro.st_), and on the File menu, click Rename.


  8. Change the .st_ file extension to .stf, and press ENTER.


  9. On the File menu, click Close.


After you rename the files, it is possible to reinstall Office 97 without receiving error messages. When Office 97 is reinstalled with this workaround however, Outlook 97 is reinstalled over Outlook 98. You must reinstall Outlook 98 after reinstalling Office 97.

If Office 97 is uninstalled after installing Outlook 98, three "failed to unregister *.SRG" errors occur. The workaround above resolves these errors.

If components are added or removed from Office 97 after upgrading to Outlook 98, and then Outlook 98 is removed, Office 97 Maintenance Mode Setup will not work.

Using Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, if you remove Outlook 97 from Office 97 after removing Outlook 98, the Office 97 Maintenance Mode Setup functionality is restored. This is not the case when you use Windows 95. You must rename the .stf and .st_ files following the steps above to restore the Maintenance Mode functionality.

Additional query words: 98 fail broken 


Keywords          : kberrmsg kbinterop kbsetup StpMaint StpHowto 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: May 25, 1999