Win 11 - trying to install copy of Office 2003 and getting issues

S0C9 · Jan 13, 2025

cereberus said:
In the end, even if you get it working, you cannot fix the security risks it poses.

Ask youself if it is a good plan to keep using a 20+ year old version no longer supported?

This is a common problem with non-techie people. My wife [for example] refuses to apply updates to her PC because she doesn’t like (or want) to deal with the changes that often brings. No amount of explaining about lack of support or security issues will change that. She’s used to things being a certain way - email (still runs Outlook 2013), browser (IE or Edge) and other software. Getting her to Photoshop’s Creative Cloud version - she was still running 2016 and paying Adobe’s subscription - took a major effort on my part. She’s not alone in that regard. I’ve run across plenty of others who don’t like/want the changes updates bring.

I KNOW that’s not us on here, but we need to be aware that those types DO EXIST.

cereberus · Jan 13, 2025

S0C9 said:
This is a common problem with non-techie people. My wife [for example] refuses to apply updates to her PC because she doesn’t like (or want) to deal with the changes that often brings. No amount of explaining about lack of support or security issues will change that. She’s used to things being a certain way - email (still runs Outlook 2013), browser (IE or Edge) and other software. Getting her to Photoshop’s Creative Cloud version - she was still running 2016 and paying Adobe’s subscription - took a major effort on my part. She’s not alone in that regard. I’ve run across plenty of others who don’t like/want the changes updates bring.

I KNOW that’s not us on here, but we need to be aware that those types DO EXIST.

Of course I am blinking aware.

So what anyway?

I can't force people to get real and move with the times but no way will I smile sweetly ignoring the real issue.

I just do not hold with nonsense that "I am not going to change how I have always done things". One is never too old to learn - actually my experience is it is often middle aged people who are like that!

S0C9 · Jan 13, 2025

cereberus said:
Of course I am blinking aware.

So what anyway?

I can't force people to get real and move with the times but no way will I smile sweetly ignoring the real issue.

I just do not hold with nonsense that "I am not going to change how I have always done things". One is never too old to learn - actually my experience is it is often middle aged people who are like that!

It goes back to the old “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink”… analogy.

saratojo · Jun 12, 2026

Chiming in . . .
Just bought new Dell computer.
I still Excel 2003.
Security risk: Yes, of course.
But I only use it for some very complicated old spreadsheets that I created with lots of macros.
I use LibreOffice for all new stuff and for opening anything created by anyone other than me.

So I installed my old Office 2003 on the new computer.
And this very problem happened.

After reading through the replies and considering the fact that I do not use and hate Microsoft OneDrive, I uninstalled OneDrive.
The problem instantly went away.

NormanF · Jun 26, 2026

Office 2019 is the oldest supported version to run on Windows 11.

Try3 · Jun 26, 2026

NormanF said:
Office 2019 is the oldest supported version to run on Windows 11.

Support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 ended on October 14, 2025

Denis

NormanF · Jun 26, 2026

I was talking about the version that ran on Windows 11. Office 2021 LTSC is still quite capable.

Bree · Jun 26, 2026

saratojo said:
So I installed my old Office 2003 on the new computer.
And this very problem happened.

After reading through the replies and considering the fact that I do not use and hate Microsoft OneDrive, I uninstalled OneDrive.
The problem instantly went away.

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

NormanF said:
Office 2019 is the oldest supported version to run on Windows 11.

Apparently my Office 2003 didn't get the memo. Works with everything, including opening and saving files on OneDrive.

pseymour · Jun 26, 2026

Supported != Works

BarryGuff · Jul 9, 2026

I also use Office 2003 on Win 11 Pro. What specifically are these security risks being mentioned? Are they documented somewhere?

Try3 · Jul 9, 2026

pseymour said:
Supported != Works

Not supported ≠ Does not work

Denis

Kees · Jul 9, 2026

BarryGuff said:
I also use Office 2003 on Win 11 Pro. What specifically are these security risks being mentioned?

There is a huge list of CVE vulnerabilities for Office 2003.
As long as you use apps like Word 2003 only to make (or edit) your own documents, no harm will be done to your system. But if you would download any document ending with .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx etc. to your PC from an unreliable source (or you get one from anybody you know), the risk is severe that your computer gets infected with a virus or ransomware. Because all these vulnerabilities have been publiced and Office 2003 has been a very commonly used program, there are people in the world using that to infect computers.

I used Office 2003 for a very long time, until about a year ago. To make the risk as low as possible, on my browser I had an extension to open online .doc (etc.) documents using Google documents. In that way I separated the use: My own made documents I can safely open in Office 2003 and the more risky ones I open in Google Documents online. I never opened any such a document when sent to me by someone I know, always asked if it could be sent again in PDF format.

Nowadays I am using Softmaker Ofiice 2021, which is much less known and having much less reports at the CVE site.

Bree · Jul 9, 2026

BarryGuff said:
I also use Office 2003 on Win 11 Pro. What specifically are these security risks being mentioned? Are they documented somewhere?

Yes, but not as an easy to read single list of Office 2003 vulnerabilities. Every individual vulnerability has its own security bulletin, and a patch. From 2014 onwards Office 2003 was no longer getting patches for new vulnerabilities.

Security Bulletins 2014

learn.microsoft.com

For example, this one was only patched for Office 2007 or later.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-082 - Important

learn.microsoft.com

A more accessible assessment of the risks can be found here:

Is Excel 2003 a Security Threat? - Ask Leo!

Running older versions of software invariably increases your risk of security issues. The practical questions are 'by how much?' and 'how do I reduce risk?'.

askleo.com

Disclosure: I have and use Office 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013 on various machines - just be careful what you open, especially if it comes in an email

BarryGuff · Sunday at 4:45 AM

Kees said:
As long as you use apps like Word 2003 only to make (or edit) your own documents, no harm will be done to your system.

Yes, I only use it for my own documents. In the rare case that I have downloaded a ".docx" file, Word 2003 just refuses to open it (below). So I open those in Google Docs instead.

Bree · Sunday at 5:27 AM

BarryGuff said:
In the rare case that I have downloaded a ".docx" file, Word 2003 just refuses to open it (below). So I open those in Google Docs instead.

There is (or rather, was) a Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Office versions from XP up to 2007 that allows you to open and save as .docx. This has been removed from Microsoft's servers but can still be found in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats from Official Microsoft Download Center

web.archive.org

BarryGuff · Wednesday at 8:25 AM

Wow, thank you! I never knew this existed.

And bless the Internet Archive.

[Edit] Just tried it, and it works perfectly! Thank you so much again.

MisterEd · 2026-07-24T00:51:35-0400

BarryGuff said:
Wow, thank you! I never knew this existed. And bless the Internet Archive.

[Edit] Just tried it, and it works perfectly! Thank you so much again.

Note the compatibility pack just allows you read/write .docx, xlsx, and pptx files. If you try to open a document from a much newer version of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint Office then Office 2003 might not be able to handle features not in it. However, if you stick with basic functions you shouldn't have a problem.

If you create a lot of documents then a side benefits is that .docx, xlsx, and pptx files tend to be much smaller than the corresponding .doc, xls, and ppt files. That can add up to a lot of savings in space on your computers drives.

BTW, I have been using Office since 1995 with Office 95. For a time I had some computers with Office 2003 and some with Office 2007. It was nice to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack in Office 2003 so all the computers could read the documents.

Win 11 - trying to install copy of Office 2003 and getting issues

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