Uninstall MS Works (Office 2003)

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I just purchased a new computer with MS Works pre-loaded.

Can Works co-exist with Office 2003, or should I un-install Works before installing Office?

I have a full version of Office, not an upgrade package.

Thanks,

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As far as I know, there should be no problem if you leave MS Works installed. But unless you have MS Works documents, I doubt you’ll use Works once you have Office…

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Personally I would uninstall Works if you are going to put Office on. Although the PC may be quite happy with both, the user may get annoyed or confused!

John

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Right. The user has never used anything other than Office and has no need for Works.

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Believe it or not, Microsoft Works and Microsoft Office are not necessarily compatible. Many computer companies (Gateway, Dell, etc.) have MS Works installed on their computers as part of the basic build. MS Works is an extremely stripped-down version of the MS Office Suite and this helps to keep the price of the computer down. Unfortunately, it also makes MS Works and the MS Office Suite almost completely incompatible. While both have popular applications such as Word, Excel, etc., the default method by which an MS Works program is saved makes it unreadable to the full-blown MS Office Suite (in spite of the fact that they both may be Word files, for example).

That’s why I would recommend to uninstall MS Works before Office installation, despite you can keep both.

So, if you already have MS Works Word files, save them as Text Only or install Works converter during Office installation (check “Choose advanced customization of applications” checkbox and make sure that Microsoft Office | Office Shared Features | Converters and filters | Text converters | Works for Windows 7.0 is set to “Run from My Computer”).

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