OFF2000: Setup Overwrites Office 95 or Office 97 Start Menu Items

When you install Microsoft Office, menu items on the Start menu that belong to Office 95 or Office 97 programs are overwritten by the menu items that belong to Office 2000 programs.

This behavior occurs because the Setup programs for Office 2000, Office 97 and Office 95 are all designed to create Start menu items with the same names (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and such). Because two identical menu items cannot exist in the same folder, the previous menu items are overwritten by the new Office 2000 menu items. This behavior occurs unless you move the previous Office 95 or 97 menu items to a different location.

NOTE: By default, Microsoft Windows is installed on drive C and the folder that stores the Office 95 or Office 97 shortcuts is:
Your install location may be different than these defaults.

To work around this behavior, move the Office 95 or Office 97 menu items to a different folder in the Programs folder. To do this, use the following steps:

1. Right-click the Start button and click Open.
2. In the Start Menu window, double-click Programs.
3. On the File menu, point to New, and click Folder. Name the new folder Microsoft Office 95 or Microsoft Office 97 and press ENTER.
4. Select the following items in the Programs folder:

   For Office 95

   Microsoft Excel
   Microsoft Binder
   Microsoft Word
   Microsoft PowerPoint
   Microsoft Access
   Microsoft Schedule+
   
   

   For Office 97

   Microsoft Excel
   Microsoft Binder
   Microsoft Word
   Microsoft PowerPoint
   Microsoft Access
   Microsoft Outlook
   Microsoft Photo Editor
   

Drag the selected items to the Office 95 or Office 97 folder. The menu items are removed from the Programs folder and appear in the Office 95 or Office 97 folder. In this location, they will not be overwritten by the Office 2000 Setup program.

Note that if you install Office 95 or Office 97 after installing Microsoft Office 2000, the menu items for the Office 2000 programs are overwritten. Because you should always install the newest version of Office programs last, to regain your icons you should repeat the steps in the "Workaround" section for the Office 95 or Office 97 programs and then run Setup for Office 2000 and click Repair Office.