Excel and Win 98 SE (5)

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I need to install Excel 5 (Yes that’s right) on to a machine that runs Windows 98. I get an error message that says that I don’t have a file called ‘share.exe’. I went back to my old Win 3.11 machine and found and copied the share.exe file from there. Win 98 didn’t like that. When I double clicked the file to run it, on the Win 98 machine, I got a message that said that I had an incorrect version of DOS.

My Win 98 machine does not have a ‘share.exe’ file on it. What do I need to do to get this installed?

I should explain why this is important. The excel file that I need to run is the one that holds all the data and times for the Griffith Triathlon. We have been running it happily and successfully for about 12 years. The sad news is that the old machine is now making beeping noises that indicate that the motherboard is on its last legs. With a week to go to race day, I thought it would be easist to load Excel 5 on to a newer machine, rather than try to convert the macros.

Can anyone help me with this?

Johanna

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SHARE.EXE is a DOS program, not a Windows program. It use to be loaded in either CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT (I don’t remember which). You may be able to load it on a WIN 98 machine, but I don’t know for sure. You would probably get a better answer on this question in the WIN 98 forum.

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Thank you. The problem will be which version of the file I need.

I will post it to the Win 98 forum and see what results I get. Any other suggestions are still welcome

Johanna

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The Share.exe tool is not included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), Windows 98 or Windows Me. File sharing and locking capabilities are provided by APIs in IFSManager and are not supported in MS-DOS mode. You may not be able to install or run some MS-DOS-based programs or 16-bit Windows-based programs that require Share.exe in OSR2, Windows 98 or Windows Me.

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The Share.exe tool is not included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), Windows 98 or Windows Me. File sharing and locking capabilities are provided by APIs in IFSManager and are not supported in MS-DOS mode. You may not be able to install or run some MS-DOS-based programs or 16-bit Windows-based programs that require Share.exe in OSR2, Windows 98 or Windows Me.

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Thank you. The problem will be which version of the file I need.

I will post it to the Win 98 forum and see what results I get. Any other suggestions are still welcome

Johanna

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SHARE.EXE is a DOS program, not a Windows program. It use to be loaded in either CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT (I don’t remember which). You may be able to load it on a WIN 98 machine, but I don’t know for sure. You would probably get a better answer on this question in the WIN 98 forum.

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I thought it would be easiest to load Excel 5 on to a newer machine, rather than try to convert the macros.

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Have you tried running the file under Excel 97 / 2K / XP? I have no experience with the macro language prior to VBA, but I thought that the later XL versions maintained backwards compatibility. If you have the newer versions of XL available it is certainly an easier solution than trying to re-create the old DOS settings to underlie Win 3.1!

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I thought it would be easiest to load Excel 5 on to a newer machine, rather than try to convert the macros.

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[/indent]
Have you tried running the file under Excel 97 / 2K / XP? I have no experience with the macro language prior to VBA, but I thought that the later XL versions maintained backwards compatibility. If you have the newer versions of XL available it is certainly an easier solution than trying to re-create the old DOS settings to underlie Win 3.1!

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Hi there,
The installation process for Excel 5.0 looks for a file ‘share.exe’
Since Win 98 does not need or use it none exists.
Simply create a small file and name it share.exe
I think it belongs in the Windows or WindowsSystem folder (It has been a long time since I resolved an issue like this.)

Good luck,

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Thank you Bob.

I had put a version of the file in c:windows and it did not work. But using the c:windowssystem directory has.

Thank you to everyone who had a suggestion. And yes, I will investigate upgrading the macros in the file – but after our race on Saturday.

(If you happen to be near Griffith, NSW on Saturday, come out to the race. Am I allowed to put this plug in?)

Johanna

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Hi Johanna,

I think you’ll find that loading your Excel file into a later version of Excel will work with little or no drama other than a message telling you that the macros have been moved from a macro sheet into a macro module. They should still run the same too, but any editing will be done in the VBE (accessed via Tools|Macro or Alt-F11).

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Hi Johanna,

I think you’ll find that loading your Excel file into a later version of Excel will work with little or no drama other than a message telling you that the macros have been moved from a macro sheet into a macro module. They should still run the same too, but any editing will be done in the VBE (accessed via Tools|Macro or Alt-F11).

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Thank you Bob.

I had put a version of the file in c:windows and it did not work. But using the c:windowssystem directory has.

Thank you to everyone who had a suggestion. And yes, I will investigate upgrading the macros in the file – but after our race on Saturday.

(If you happen to be near Griffith, NSW on Saturday, come out to the race. Am I allowed to put this plug in?)

Johanna

Reply | Quote

Hi there,
The installation process for Excel 5.0 looks for a file ‘share.exe’
Since Win 98 does not need or use it none exists.
Simply create a small file and name it share.exe
I think it belongs in the Windows or WindowsSystem folder (It has been a long time since I resolved an issue like this.)

Good luck,

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