Need to use Office 97, XP, 2003 and 2010 on the same PC

Question

Hello there,
I need to use different versions of office product on my PC, a winXP Sp3 box. I used Office 97, XP and 2003 so far without any trouble.
Now I installed Office 2010, taking care of the "leave previous Office versions" enabled during installation and to place the 2010 files in a "Office10" folder rather than the default one. Each Office suite has its own folder too.
From now I have this problem: starting any XP or 2003 application will show up the windows installer reconfiguration window, and this takes a lot of time until the application effectively starts. If then I wish to use a 2010 app, launching it will show 
the office 2010 setup-reconfiguration window, so another couple of minutes of elaboration is needed until I can use my app.
Please someone can help me with this issue?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Hi,
Multiple versions of Microsoft Office software can be installed, if you install earliest version of Office first. Following order of installation should allow error free usage of multiple Office software versions.
First - Microsoft Office XP
Second - Microsoft Office 2003
Third - 2007 Office suites and programs
Fourth - Microsoft Office 2010 suites (32-bit versions only)
Above order applies to installation of whole Microsoft Office suite and also individual Office programs on single Windows PC.
In your case, you have installed these apps successfully, but Windows Installer Appears Every Time when you start office XP or 2003, try this:
Open the Group Policy Editor by selecting Run from the Start Menu, and typing
gpedit.msc. (If the file is missing, run mmc.exe instead. Then, select
Add/Remove Snap-in from the Console menu, click
Add, and double-click Group Policy. Click
Finish, then Close, then Ok.)
Expand the following branches:
Local Computer Policy \ Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Windows Installer
Double-click Disable Windows Installer to your right, click
Enabled, and choose Always from the list. Click Ok when you're done.
The change will take effect immediately. If you added a snap in, as described above, you don't need to "save changes to the console."
Note: If you encounter an error about the Administrator Policy the next time you try to install an application, you'll have to re-enable the Windows Installer temporarily.
Also you said "If then I wish to use a 2010 app, launching it will show  the office 2010 setup-reconfiguration window". To work around this issue:
Open Run (Press Windows key + R) copy and paste the following commands one at a time and then press ENTER.
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Access\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1
NOTE: You should back-up the registry using the steps given
here before modification.