"Cannot Find Share.exe" Installing MS Office Under Windows 95

• Microsoft Office for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.2, 4.3
• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.0a, 5.0, 5.0a
• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a
• Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows, versions 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 4.0a
• Microsoft Access 2.0
• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you install Microsoft Office 4.2 or 4.3, Microsoft Excel 5.0, Microsoft Word 6.0, or Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 on a computer running Microsoft Windows 95, you may receive the following error message:

   Cannot find share.exe

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

   You are running Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2).

   -or-

   The Share.exe file is not in the \windows\command folder on a computer
   running Microsoft Windows 95.

   -or-

   The file Share.exe is on the computer, but is not in a folder included
   in the PATH statement.

   -or-

   The file share.exe is corrupt.

WORKAROUNDS

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

Method 1

To resolve this problem, install the latest version of the program. Following are the latest versions:

   Microsoft Office 4.2c
   Microsoft Office 4.3c
   Microsoft Excel 5.0c
   Microsoft Word 6.0c
   Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0c
   Microsoft Access 2.0c

   http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/default.htm

Method 2

You can successfully install the programs listed at the beginning of this article on a computer running Microsoft Windows 95 by creating a zero-byte Share.exe file. To do this, use the following steps:

1. On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Notepad.

2. On the File menu, click Save As.

3. In the Save In box, click drive C to save the file in the root directory.

4. In the Save As dialog box, type "share.exe" (without the quotation marks) in the File Name box, and then click Save.

5. Restart the setup program for Microsoft Office 4.2, Microsoft Office 4.3, Microsoft Excel 5.0, Microsoft Word 6.0, or Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0.

STATUS

This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 4.2c, Microsoft Office 4.3c, Microsoft Excel 5.0c, Microsoft Word 6.0c, and Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0c for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows 95 uses the virtual device driver Vshare.386 instead of Share.exe. Share.exe is installed by Microsoft Windows 95 for backward compatibility, but is not installed by Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2). The programs listed at the beginning of this article require that Share.exe be located on the computer in a folder included in the PATH statement.

Note that if Vshare.386 is loaded by Windows 95, these programs do not require Share.exe after installation.

REFERENCES

For more information about Share.exe, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Article ID: Q161619
   Title     : Share.exe Is Not Supported in Windows 95 OSR2

   Article ID: Q106499
   Title     : XL5 Err Msg: "Must Exit Windows and Load SHARE.EXE..."

   Article ID: Q113355
   Title     : ACC2: How Microsoft Access Uses SHARE.EXE (2.0)