MS Office 2003 Word & Excel

I have MS Office Pro 2003 which I only use the Word & Excel portion & have used for years and I really like the simplicity of it & it is all I need. Just Wood & Excel to meet my needs. Now Windows latest update 25H2 took care of that as it no longer supports 2003. I have rolled the update back but Office still does not completely work as it did. So what Office should I get to use my old Word & Excel files ongoing?

In what way doesn't Office work in 25H2? Mine does....



Have you tried repairing it? Go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Office 2003, click the three dots ... and select Modify.





If you really can't get Office to work, then LibreOffice is a good (and free) alternative. There's a Portable version that doesn't require installing, if you'd like to try. It can even be run from a USB stick.

It did work OK for few days after it updated 25H2 but then suddenly stopped working correctly, like it would not "save" a Word doc to any folder etc that I wanted it to, I have got it to save to users one drive only but have to move it to where I actually want it to be in my "D" Drive under the files that I have made many years ago when I had WIn 7 &, then Win 10. Office 2003 worked in both with no issue. I actually think I had Office 2003 when I had Win 5 as my OS.. I can type a Word doc & print it out but that is it. I was told because MS stopped support of MS Office 2003 with 25H2 was my problem & it seems to be as it does kind of work with the roll back. Yes have reloaded just Word & Excel, repaired it all, removed it all & reinstalled it several times & the same result.. My choices are to get a new version of office or try Libre Office. To fix it I need to roll back the update which is what I did but it will try to y update again in 7 days so that will be a pain as I will have to roll back often which prevents any needed updates for the future. So besides Libre which I hear has some issues I will need to get a new version of at least Office 10 or higher. Which I'm asking what version would suit my needs as I don't do spread sheets just use Excel for some self created forms & Word to cut and paste info from the Web or make a letter to email or just send US mail. I'm now still on 23H2 currently.

have you tried setting word.exe file and excel.exe file to compatibility mode for Windows 7.
find the .exe files right click them, on that menu properties
then the compatibility tab. you then set each one to Windows 7 compatibility mode.

best of luck Steve ..

XxXxX said:

have you tried setting word.exe file and excel.exe file to compatibility mode for Windows 7.
find the .exe files right click them, on that menu properties
then the compatibility tab. you then set each one to Windows 7 compatibility mode.

best of luck Steve ..

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It's WINWORD.EXE actually (yes, all in capitals). Mine was a clean install of 25H2, followed by a fresh install of Office 2003.
I've just had a look at the compatibility settings Windows had chosen for it, it used Windows 8.

Bree said:

It's WINWORD.EXE actually (yes, all in capitals). Mine was a clean install of 25H2, followed by a fresh install of Office 2003.
I've just had a look at the compatibility settings Windows had chosen for it, it used Windows 8.

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yes WINWORD.exe i normally install word 2003 in compatibility mode for Windows 7
along with Microsoft works 9 also in Windows 7 compatibility mode.

on my wifes system, Windows 11 25H2, they are both running just fine in Windows 7 compatibility mode.

best of luck Steve ..

2007 works well with Windows 11 but Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 is only 19.97 on StackSocialwhich which I also have.

I got my Office 2007 on eBay with 5 installs for 20.00 and I've installed it on three PC's

Bree said:

In what way doesn't Office work in 25H2? Mine does....

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Ditto here, 2 devices (desktop and laptop) I still use mine because it's the oldest but latest that I can still open old format MS Access databases (avec les macros)

rgh43 said:

It did work OK for few days after it updated 25H2 but then suddenly stopped working correctly, like it would not "save" a Word doc to any folder etc that I wanted it to, I have got it to save to users one drive only

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That sounds like a settings issue, especially when MS periodically re-invokes the dreaded OneDrive requiring the user to reset Save settings in Word and Excel. Uninstalling OneDrive (using RevoUninstaller, and changing the Save options path(s). Note there are settings will also need to be changed as well as the save path.

Note OneDrive also is an integral part of the Windows OS, not just MS Office. Consequently updates of Windows, not just MS Office, can include the re-activation of OneDrive

rgh43 said:

I was told because MS stopped support of MS Office 2003

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Shouldn't stop it from working

rgh43 said:

with 25H2 was my problem

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Who told you it was 25H2 that was specifically the problem?

rgh43 said:

or try Libre Office.

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Depending on the complexity of your documents and/or spreadsheets, a viable option

rgh43 said:

So besides Libre which I hear has some issues

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I'm not sure who you're listening to with all these tales of doom and gloom .... What issues? It's not perfect or ideal at the high end of doc/sheet creation, but most issues, for home use, I've heard of relate to user use and/or settings ....

If that doesn't suit, Google Docs is an alternative, as is OpenOffice, WPS Office

rgh43 said:

Windows latest update 25H2 took care of that as it no longer supports 2003

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I have Win 11 Pro (25H2 Build 26200.7840) and was able to install Office 2003 with no issues:
The Office apps appeared in my Start menu:
It ran Word 2003 perfectly, too. So it's definitely compatible.

Issues with Word, wont spell check correctly, sometimes typing a word doc I go back a sentence or so to correct a misspell it will type in the letter & take out the next letter & keeps doing that so I have to do a manual spell check. There are others thing also.
The Answer I got about the issue I feel is correct unless their is some problem with update installed. I did reinstall Win11 to see but the issue continued. Got the update & accidently installed it as I had delayed for some time. Surprisingly it worked fine until 25H2 updated everything.
I said before about a few other things that made it a nightmare. Now let me be clear after the original update from Win 10 to Win 11 it Still worked just as it had with Win10. Until the update then it all went to hell. Now I’m not a PC genius but was a Network Tech long ago & when something is working perfectly then suddenly goes up in smoke you look for the most recent prior change.
I did not suspect the 25H2 update to do it but the info I was given on this forum nailed it. So I went back to 23H2 & it started working OK. Now on 4/7 my pause ends so it will try to update again & if I can I will squash that so I can keep Word & Excel working until I figure out should I buy a newer version of office or go to LibreOffice.
I'm going to give this PC to my spouse to replace her 10yr old HP that MS says can't be updated to Win 11 so I will reformat the SSD & install Win 11 clean. Then try MS Office 2003 again to see what happens.

XxXxX in reply to your comments:​

How do I get into an the WINWORDexe file, trying search in various places for it, also I can't see the update for Windows 7 compatibility mode in Control Panel 'Programs" it seems I remember it long ago that I downloaded it for a Win 7 PC I had. How do I get it now to see if taht will help.

its in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\ folder

right click the winword.exe file
then on that menu click properties

then at the top click the compatibility tab
tick the box then on the drop down menu
click windows 7. save settings and close the file.

best of luck Steve ..

idgat said:

Depending on the complexity of your documents and/or spreadsheets, a viable option

I'm not sure who you're listening to with all these tales of doom and gloom .... What issues? It's not perfect or ideal at the high end of doc/sheet creation, but most issues, for home use, I've heard of relate to user use and/or settings ....

If that doesn't suit, Google Docs is an alternative, as is OpenOffice, WPS Office

Click to expand...

I 100% agree with this. Not perfect, but very powerful and not very far behind latest Office365 functionality. If compared to O2003 Libre is miles ahead already. I use it daily on my Linux Machine and is very compatible with all my O365 docs, even more complex ones.