Question Question about MS Office 2003 and Windows 11

[SL149]

Hi,

I'm new here and I hope I posted in the right section. I have a question about MS Office and Windows 11. My 10 year old computer died suddenly last week and it was running Windows 10 and I had MS Office 2003 installed on it. When I ordered my new Dell computer a couple days ago running Win 11, I didn't realize that the new PC doesn't come with a CD drive. So, I can't install MS Office 2003 on my new unit nor can I transfer the files from Office off of my old unit. Is there a way to download an upgrade to Office 2003 on my new PC? Or, if I buy an external CD drive, will Office 2003 even work with Windows 11?

Thanks!

 

[Eximo]

Well, Office 2003 is pretty outdated. I can't remember if the cut off for the new office format is 2003 or 2007, I want to say 2007. It might work on Windows 10, but I am not sure about Windows 11. Probably.

A new standalone copy is going to set you back $250(That would be office 2021, Office 2023 is not available standalone. Office 2024 isn't available yet, which will have a standalone version) But that is the only way to get office without an Office 365 subscription.

Transferring your files shouldn't require an optical drive, unless you already have them backed up that way. I suggest an external USB optical drive in that case and a USB flash drive for simple file transfers. You may also be able to extract the data drive from the previous system and install it in the new one to retrieve files, assuming that wasn't the part that broke.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/get-started-with-office-2021

 

[SL149]

Thank you for your reply. The problem is, is I cannot start up my computer when I press the on/off switch. My husband shut the computer off using the on/off switch when he shouldn't have and then when I tried to start it up nothing happened...it's dead. It was a 10.5 year old computer so I wasn't going to have it fixed. I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to computer hardware, so I don't even know how to get files off of a computer that has died. I do have regular files/folders saved to the Cloud but not any exe. files. I did download Thunderbird email client and Open Office. Do you think those software apps are good to use as a replacement for MS Office?

Thank you for your help!

 

[USAFRet]

I did download Thunderbird email client and Open Office. Do you think those software apps are good to use as a replacement for MS Office?

Absolutely!

I have MS Office and Open Office on all of my systems.
The only reason I have MS Office is because I get it for cheap, from my employer.

For 99% of home users, OpenOffice is a viable, free, alternative.

 

[SL149]

What about Thunderbird, do you like that app? I have been using Outlook for over 20 years. Thunderbird is similar but a bit different. I guess I am a creature of habit...LOL!!!

 

[USAFRet]

What about Thunderbird, do you like that app? I have been using Outlook for over 20 years. Thunderbird is similar but a bit different. I guess I am a creature of habit...LOL!!!

I still use Outlook, but T-Bird wouldn't be a big stretch.

 

[Eximo]

Indeed. Open XML document format they all share now is pretty universal.

Outlook is still free, certainly outlook.com. The outlook client is also still free. Check the Microsoft store.

 

[SL149]

Thank you so much for helping me!!! I am going to keep Thunderbird for my email client and Open Office for my equivalent to MS Office. I really appreciate you helping me so much!!

I bookmarked this site, so if I can read all the info. Thanks again!!!