Will Office 2003 work with Windows 8?

Office 2003 + Windows 8 Pro x64

A consensus is emerging in Windows 8 forums around the net that Office 2003 as a suite or individuals apps therefrom break Windows 8's Update.

Diagnosis of the initial reports attributed the failure to Windows 8 x64 [RTM] upgrades over Windows 7 x64 that had Office 2003 installed.

My experience, however, was with a 'clean' install of Windows 8 Pro [via TechNet] and the same result is being confirmed in other forums now.

So far there is no indication of Office 2003 (SP3) applications not functioning normally in 8. My early testing of Outlook, Excel, and Word have them working flawlessly — even with a highly reduced set of macros from Woody Leonard's legendary WOPR 2003!

There is no comprehensive fix at this time for the Windows Update problem. It is conjectured that this may be a 'Certificates' issue with Office 2003. That would necessitate a Hotfix from Microsoft for software that passes out of active support next year. Disabling updates for 'other Microsoft products' will restore Windows 8 ONLY updating.

Some will simply switch / upgrade to Office 2010 — which I have learned to accept then appreciate — but many folks remain alienated by THE RIBBON, not to mention the cost and loss of certain macros, older add-ins, reduced customizability, etc; or wait for Office 2013.

Interesting it will be to see whether Microsoft (Office Division) comes through for its installed-user base on this on

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Justin Version

Minneapolis Internet Marketing Services, MN.

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Office 2003 applications are not compatible with Windows 8

Well as is often the case- I found the answer to my question soon after posting this query.  See the following URL:

http://www.eightforums.com/windows-updates-activation/6137-cant-update-other-microsoft-products.html

Hope this helps others

Cheers

I'm running Office 2003 on Win 8 with the Compatibility pack that allows 2003 to read documents created with later versions of Office.  Everything seems to be working OK, but I'm not a heavy user.

I have 2 PC's.  One was running  Win 7 and Office 2003, the other was running XP and Office 2003.  I've upgraded both to Win 8.   The Win 7 machine upgraded without having to reinstall Office 2003.  The XP machine, I had to reinstall Office 2003 from original CD's  and reactivate.  I also applied all the relevant patches manually from the Microsoft Download site.  A little tedious but necessary.  The reinstall was expected as per MS documentation.

 So all is going well except for one thing.  On the machine that was Win 7, when I run Windows Update, it finds the latest Office 2003 patches and applies them automatically.  On the machine that was XP, Windows Update does NOT find the latest Office 2003 patches.  

Anyone know or have an idea why this may be happening and a solution to correct this.  Of course I can still do the patching manually but of course would like to have it automatic.

Thanks

David