Windows 10: With Win10 Creators Update, Office 2003/Word 2003 Crashes

Although Office 2003 Pro was NOT supposed to work with Windows 10, it has been just fine until Windows 10 Creators Update.
Now when I go to save a new document in Word 2003 in a different subdirectory from the default one, the dropdown freezes, and Word crashes with a message "Microsoft Office Word has stopped working". The document is rescued, but still can't be saved elsewhere.
I have tried almost EVERY one of the compatibility modes (win 8, 7, xp, 95, etc.) with essentially the same results.
I also cannot open .docx any more when I could previously in Win10 mode and I think compatibility mode too.
Can't open some spreadsheets in Excel, but using a compatibility mode seems to work. Could open a newer .ppt, but it crashed soon after. Compatibility mode seemed to work at least for that one ppt.
HELP... any ideas? I don't want to upgrade (I love the old interface), but feel I am going to be forced to get Open Office or similar.
Thanks in advance,
Edgar

:)

 

Outlook 2007 and Windows10

"Older versions of Office such as Office 2003 and Office XP are not certified compatible with Windows 10 but might work using compatibility mode. "

Older versions work. Word 2003 and Outlook 2003 work under Win 10.

Outlook 2003 has minor glitches like autocomplete function - it finds the address but can't automatically fill it.

Word 2003 works well - in fact, I'm considering switching to Word 2003 after spending countless hours on bringing Word 2013 to a usable shape. Barely customizable ribbon in 2013 is a deal-breaker, and so is the missing Office Picture Manager.

 

Windows 10 Autoupdate

That's great and all, but Win10's autoupdate is attempting and failing to install this update over and over and over.

 

Have you tried uninstalling it and the reinstall it.

 

Hi there

why not keep your OLD OS as a VM and run the new OS on on your main machine.

That way the old Office 2003 will continue working for as long as you want. Share the data disk between VM and main machine --vmware player is free.

BTW Office 2007 works fine if you have a copy and still like the Office 2003 interface -- simply press CTRL + F1 to minimize the larger ribbon in office 2007.

A good office clone though (much more compatible with Office than Libre or Free office) is the Free version of WPS office -- note though doesn't have an email client. BTW also works on Linux !!!

The Most Compatible Free Office Suite - WPS Office
.

Cheers
jimbo

 

I did the "repair" function for Office 2003... and the problem continued.

 

Jimbo... I am not familiar with virtual machines... but can look into it.

Thanks for the tip about Office 2007 (and the beloved old interface).

I installed WPS Office 2016 which has a 2003 emulation function for now.

Edgar

 

I Would uninstall it totally, then I would run CCleaner and clean up the drive and the registry and reboot the computer and then reinstall Office.

 

I don't know if you already found a solution for your Office 2003 problem, but today I encountered exactly the same issue on a Windows 10 machine that was recently updated to the Creators Update.
What helped for me was de-installing the Microsoft Office File Validation Add-in. See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down...s.aspx?id=2807 After I removed the Add-in Word and Excel 2003 worked fine again.

 

Remco... thanks for the tip.

I just looked, and I don't have OFV.exe (the file validator you mentioned) on my system! Do you think adding would be helpful?

Edgar

 

I really don't think that would help, since to my knowledge this add in is only used to verify older document formats (*.doc instead of *.docx etc).
In other forums I also found the suggestion to uninstall Malwarebytes, since apparantly this program in combination with the Creators update and Office 2003 causes problems. This program was installed on the affected system, so I actually uninstalled Malwarebytes first, but it didn't prevent Word and Excel from crashing again. So I tried cleaning the register with CCleaner and then I saw the above mentioned Office File Validatoin Add-in, which I uninstalled in CCleaner. After that I didn't experience Word or Excel crashes any more.