Using old versions of MS Office?

[Retro6]

Why not?

So Microsoft Office 97 & Microsoft Office 2000 works in Windows 10 which I think is pretty cool because they both hold a lot of nostalgia but pretty much do the same thing as what any modern version of office can do plus older versions of Office are going to be smaller in file size and you have good old clip art and all the old fun stuff. Why use a modern version of office?

 

[Tetras]

The security updates and newer features, I guess, though some would argue the newer versions of Office are a bigger security risk than many/most of the exploits for the older versions

 

[Murphy]

What Tetras said, security issues. If you open third-party files there's always the possibility they could be malicious, considering what Office type programs are used for (letters, documents, accounts, etc, etc) it adds another level of danger.

Personally I'd use one of the free versions of a productive suites like LibreOffice or OpenOffice rather than an older version of MS Office.

 

[CHokKA]

Security updates for sure. And functionality, what might be of no use to you is certainly of use to others that require the advanced features within the Office applications.

 

[Retro6]

Well Windows 10 has pretty good security so I would have thought anything installed would be protected anyway right?

There are things in the old office suits that modern office suits don't have like like Microsoft Publisher where you can create things more easily without all the fuss you'd have to do in Libra office.

 

[Mujja]

Lack of security updates would only be an issue if you were opening shared documents. I don't think an Office version that old supports the newer file types, docx, xlsx etc, so OP isn't going to be opening any shared documents or dodgy attachments.

Newer versions are useful if you use OneDrive or need to edit a document with others, but that can be done through Office online.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

I still use Office 2010 on Windows 10. Works fine and was still receiving security updates until fairly recently.

If you don't open dodgy documents, I don't see how in practice you are any more at risk than a newer version.

 

[joey1211]

Lack of security updates would only be an issue if you were opening shared documents. I don't think an Office version that old supports the newer file types, docx, xlsx etc, so OP isn't going to be opening any shared documents or dodgy attachments.

Newer versions are useful if you use OneDrive or need to edit a document with others, but that can be done through Office online.

Office 2003 could open the newer 'x' type files, Microsoft released a converter for it.

However, one peculiarity I found was that docx files would lose the spaces between words in some documents. I never did figure out why.

 

[Armageus]

Lack of security updates would only be an issue if you were opening shared documents. I don't think an Office version that old supports the newer file types, docx, xlsx etc, so OP isn't going to be opening any shared documents or dodgy attachments.

I'm still using Office XP, and it works reasonably well with .docx/.xlsx once you install the office 2007 compatibility pack

 

[andshrew]

Lack of security updates would only be an issue if you were opening shared documents. I don't think an Office version that old supports the newer file types, docx, xlsx etc, so OP isn't going to be opening any shared documents or dodgy attachments.

That does assume there are no indirect exploits (ie. the presence alone of vulnerable Office DLLs, EXEs, OCX type files being enough for something else to take advantage of them), and without checking 25 years worth of historical vulnerabilities its hard to say how many of those existed.

It's a shame there isn't easier application virtualisation in Windows, if you could pin the application into its own little isolated container it would make using these older applications much less risky.

 

[malachi]

Had an old version of Office for Mac which updates ran out last year. It still worked fine and there are plenty of free alternatives now.

Using MS 365 now with a family sub till 2027 so I use that now on my Mac.

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

Using Office 2021 on my home PC, not sure if that's considered an old version. I cant see the difference with the apps on my home PC and the 365 versions I use at work.

 

[Glanza]

Rather than using the older versions of Office I'd put Open or Libreoffice on, has the old school look with modern features and security updates and both are free.

 

[Orcvader]

Still using Office 2016, and looking at Windows update history, it still gets security updates.

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

Rather than using the older versions of Office I'd put Open or Libreoffice on, has the old school look with modern features and security updates and both are free.

This is a good suggestion!

 

[K.C. Leblanc]

I seem to remember the file format changed with the introduction of 2007 so you may have issues working files you've received from others. As @Glanza has suggested Open Office or Libre Office might be an idea.

Of do things properly and find a copy of Locoscript.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

I've got a copy of Office 2003 and while it works fine windows spews all kinds of security warnings at you. So I use OpenOffice or similar instead

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

I got a PC for the very first time in March 1999 and bought the latest version of Office, which was '97. I kept the CD and just stuck it on every subsequent machine I've had over the next 25 years, obviously formatting my old machines before selling on so that I'm still its license holder. Modern machines don't have optical drives, so I just load it onto my current i7-11700K 3070 via an external BD-ROM drive and it works fine on Windows 11. There is a glitch on Excel '97 though where if I click on the Excel window, the Google Drive icon shows up on my taskbar for a split second which steals focus away from the Excel window, so that I have to click on the Excel window again to reclaim it. So this implies it's a Google Drive issue rather than an Office '97 issue.