ATTN: Since I originally posted this message I have written a complete step-by-step guide to getting Office & Outlook 2000 running on Windows Vista. Head on over to my Outlook 2000 on Vista page to get the answer you are looking for.
In my quest to setup my main machine at home with the final version of Windows Vista, I have installed Office 2000. This is the latest version I have that can be installed without any activation issues. I had a one license install of Office 2003 and used that on my wife’s laptop (which is currently in the shop). I also have a one license install of Office 2007, but I am waiting to install Windows Vista on my laptop to use that.
I receieved an error on the second disc of the Office 2000 installation. Disc two mainly installs Publisher and the Clip Art. I had to cancel that part of the install and start disc two over. I did a custom configuration and removed all the junk I don’t need. That worked as the install went fine and it never complained about that file. I may need to worry about my disc, though it looks just fine. I could not copy that file manually either.
I’ll keep you informed as the saga continues.
January 22, 2007 at 4:29 am |
Dear Scott:
I came upon you blog in a Google search for vista and office 2000. I’m newly running Vista RC2 with Office 2000. I write 300+ page documents and later versions of Word seem too slow. I’m having a problem with Outlook: I can’t create rules to file email. I get an error message saying “can’t find wab.dll”. How is your installation doing?
–Thanks, Craig
January 22, 2007 at 7:36 am |
Sorry Craig, but I don’t use Outlook. I use Outlook Express on my laptop at home (XP) and they “force” us to use Lotus Notes at work.
Addendum: The preliminary steps to get Outlook 2000 working in Vista are here.
February 3, 2007 at 8:37 pm |
Hi Scott,
I am using the newly released oem version of Office Premium and I cannot get my Office 2000 to work with Outlook – the message when attempting to Print or Reply to an email is that it can’t find WAB.DLL – if you get a solution – please advise.
Thanks.
February 16, 2007 at 10:36 am |
I also found your blog by searching for Vista and Office 2000. A friend of mine is having trouble with his Office 2k installation on a brand new Vista laptop.
I’ve read from other sites that Outlook 2000 is not compatible with Vista due to an addressbook issue, but that other components of Office should work just fine. I haven’t looked into my friend’s issue very deeply, so I’m not sure why he’s having trouble.
Hopefully that’ll help shed some light on the problems these other folks are having, though.
Cheers,
Jon
February 22, 2007 at 11:54 am |
[...] not going to give any opinion of Vista, as it is unfair, although some people have had problems…. Vista Setup – Installed Office 2000 Scott’s Blog Office 2000 and Vista – Tech Support Guy Forums umm, so, its your decision, but I would stick [...]
February 24, 2007 at 7:10 am |
Have loaded Office 2000 onto Vista. On trying to start Outlook, the program opens and then puts up a message saying “Operation failed”. On Oking Outlook closes.
Also, when starting Excel, a message appears sayng “One of your object libraries (stdole32.dll) is missing or damaged. Please run setup to install it.” Re-installation does nothing. I have found the file mentioned in the System32 folder.
Has anyone any ideas?
February 24, 2007 at 7:17 am |
I have installed and uninstalled Office 2000 on my new vista laptop. All components work well except for the Outlook. I can receive mail, but cannot send due to address book issues–”cannot find WAB DLL”. I have spent hours with the Tech people and they are at a loss–just say buy Office 2007. There are some additional problems: I get a warning that my Recovery drive is about to run out of space–I have not installed any programs other than Office 2000 and have had the computer for 4 days. The Tech people in India are unable to help. We reformatted the computer to its original configurationa and it hasn’t fixed any of the problems. I have 2 gig Ram with a 1.78 Intel Duo processor. I am totally frustrated! I have tried to get XP to replace the Vista, but the manufacturer doesn’t ship any laptops without Vista. I never had these setup issues with either of my XP machines. I am about to ship the laptop back.
Very frustrated. Peggy
March 15, 2007 at 5:40 am |
regarding WAB.DLL issue : copy the file WAB32.DLL & WAB32res.DLL into \windows\system32\ directory. It fixes the problem partially . I still can’t put my outlook contact list in here
March 17, 2007 at 5:48 am |
I have the same problem with Windows XP. My AZUS P4C800-E mainboard died and I had to buy a different brand (MSI PM8M-V) mainboards for P4 processors are now as rare as hen’s teeth. Of course Windows wouldn’t boot because of incompatible SATA drivers. I was forced to do a partial reinstall. Everything else works except the address book. Or are there a thousand other horrors waiting to bite me when they will cause me the most grief?
I suspect the latest patch state of windows and office 2000 cause problems when you do a partial reinstall.
I could format both hard drives and start again with clean loads of XP and Office 2000 I suppose.
Non Illegitimi Carburundum.
Dick.
March 24, 2007 at 9:58 pm |
Eitan,
Tried your trick of copying files WAB32.DLL & WAB32res.DLL into \windows\system32\ directory. It did work for now although who knows what else will come up.
Thanx,
Tim
March 26, 2007 at 11:37 am |
Eitan – tried your trick, too. So far so good. I hated to pay the $$$ to upgrate to a higher version of Office, when all I really use consistantly is Outlook (and of course that doesn’t come on the lower priced versions.) Thanks!
March 29, 2007 at 7:02 am |
Copying the WAB32.dll & WAB32res.dll files will not get you the full Contacts/WAB functionality that Outlook 2000 installed on earlier Windows versions had.
It will satisfy the error messages described above, because the WAB .dll files can now be found. But you must realize that these are not the same versions of those files that Outlook 2000 is looking for.
I believe the version of Windows Address Book installed with Outlook Express (which was installed as part of IE6) is very different from the version provided in Windows Vista. In Vista, contacts are now actually files in a Contacts folder, not records in a database.
When Outlook 2000 was installed on Windows XP (with IE6 and its corresponding version of Outlook Express), the Windows Address Book actually pulled contact information from your Outlook 2000 Contacts folder. Outlook 2000 actually launched WAB, whenever you clicked on the following: the WAB toolbar button, the WAB menu item, the To… button, the CC… button, or the BCC… button. It was the WAB that actually managed addresses whenever you sent email messages from within Outlook. This version of Windows Address Book could store Contacts internally if you were using Outlook Express, or could it pull them from the Contacts folder if Outlook was installed. In the latter Case you could also create a distribution lists in WAB which would also be saved as an Outlook Contact. In Outlook 2000 on Windows XP with IE6 (and the corresponding version of Outlook Express and WAB), you could simply type a Contact’s name in the TO: field of an email Message and click on the Check Addresses toolbar button. Behind the scenes Outlook used WAB to lookup the possible user name matches, even if the addresses were actually being pulled from the Outlook Contacts folder.
When you install Outlook 2000 on Windows Vista (with IE7, and Windows Mail, and the new Windows Address Book) this linkage between the Outlook 2000 Contacts list and the Windows Address Book will be broken. If you copy the files mentioned above, it will suppress the error messages, but it will NOT restore the lost functionality.
You will loose the ability to use any Distribution Lists that you may have created and stored in your Outlook 2000 Contacts folder. When you click on the To… button when addressing an email message, the Windows Address Book will open, but it will not be populated with any of your Outlook 2000 contacts. You can still use any contacts you have stored in the Vista WAB. If you want to email any of your Outlook contacts, you can still right-click on the contact entry and select New Message to Contact. In this case, Outlook will pull the addresses (all of them) from the Contact (bypassing the WAB).
April 7, 2007 at 9:56 pm |
Ken,
Thanks. I noticed the same thing and just figure I was crazy. The new Vista Contact book doesn’t take PST files… I hate to be cynical, but I looked at all the problems with Vista and Outlook and part of me figures they did this to get us to upgrade. They had to know this was a problemand could have figured a fix for us, or had the courtesy to tell us ahead of time that it wouldn’t work.
April 8, 2007 at 1:07 pm |
Well I’ve just bought a new laptop today and you can’t seem to buy anything with XP on it so I’m stuck with Vista. I’m also running Office 2000 which they assured me inthe shop would work with Vista. I’ve only tried Word and Outlook so far. Word seems OK but I’ve also got the WAB DLL problem – surely Microsoft would offer a patch for this? As a bit of a dunce can anyone tell me how I do the fix of putting a wab32 dll file on? Does this also mean I can’t put all the PST files I backed up to disk on my system? Thanks to anyone who can help me
April 8, 2007 at 5:23 pm |
I’d have to say that you guys are all somewhat lucky because I can’t even get my Office 2000 to install on Vista Basic. The install locks up as soon as it tries to actually start copying files. I don’t even use Outlook and would be just peachy if I could just get Excel, Word, and PowerPoint to install.
April 11, 2007 at 6:40 pm |
So, where do you find the WAB32.dll & WAB32res.dll files to copy to the \windows\system32\ directory? Sorry for such a dumb question but i’m a novice at this.
Thanks
April 24, 2007 at 5:13 pm |
I would also like to know the answer to George’s question about wab.dll
April 24, 2007 at 9:22 pm |
This link takes you to the instructions on where the WAB files are:
http://miniburb.wordpress.com/2007/03/07/outlook-2000-on-windows-vista/
Plus here they are:
Use Explorer to navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\System
Copy wab32.dll and wab32res.dll to C:\Windows\System32
But there’s more at the link.
April 26, 2007 at 1:34 pm |
Guys – just figured this out. Export your outlook 2000 contacts as CSV (Windows) and then import the CSV file into the new Windows Explorer Contacts (Import as CSV). And then when you hit “To” in a new message all your contacts are there to use!
May 14, 2007 at 12:20 pm |
Tim – Thank you for the tip about exporting the contacts as CSV – works like a charm! You da man!!!
May 19, 2007 at 3:34 am |
Scott , Thanks a lot it worked. I was able send emails but as soon as I click the send/Receive button, I get an error message ” The Add-in C:windows\system32\fxsext32.dll could not be installed or loaded. I tried to resolve by using Detect and repair on the help menu but no joy. Any help will be appriciated. Thanks a lot guys.
May 23, 2007 at 3:34 pm |
Thanks for WAB32.DLL & WAB32res.DLL idea
Worked for me!
Murray
May 29, 2007 at 1:22 pm |
I have another problem with Office 2000 on VISTA. Word locks up every 5 to 10 minutes with some sort of message from the OS that word has quit responding. Only option seems to ‘reboot’ or kill word. Anyone know how to fix this?
May 30, 2007 at 12:22 am |
I have the same problem as Murali Nair above. Outlook opens – no problem. Opens new e-mail window, also no problem. When I hit send then I get this error: The add-in “C:\WINDOWS\system32\fxsext32.dll” could not be installed or loaded. This problem may be resolved by using Detect and Repair on the Help menu.
Like Mr. Nair above, I tried that and also no joy. Somewhere I found a reference to this DLL being used for the Czech version of Windows ??!!
Can anyone shed any light on this?
June 4, 2007 at 9:33 pm |
I just had success installing Office 2000 on my new PC with Windows Vista OS! This comes as a HUGE relief to me since the guys at Circuit City where I purchased my new computer told me I would have to purchase Office Pro 2007 for $600. I’m pretty annoyed at the fact that Microsoft sticks it to its customers by forcing us to purchase all new software every time they feel like coming up with a new OS, so I’m proud that I beat the system by being able to use my old software! I’ll try to update if I do happen to run into any problems.
June 10, 2007 at 10:54 pm |
I tried adding the wab32 and wab32res dll files to the system32 folder, but now Outlook wants reinstall itself everytime open and then I get “The procedure entry point StrTokEx could not be located in the dynamic link library MSOER2.dll” error. After I click OK about 10 times I still get the old WAB error when I try to send an email. Any ideas?
June 18, 2007 at 8:22 pm |
Matt,
You should try uninstalling and reinstall just Outlook. On one of my tests I had to uninstall and reinstall two times. Go figure!
Scott
June 26, 2007 at 5:31 pm |
Hi Scott (and others):
I found that the copy set fixed the wab error. I also can’t get contacts to load. But, I also can’t seem to get Outlook to “finish” the install so every time I launch from the desktop icon I get the pair of preamble windows asking about prior Outlook versions etc. Is there a way to make Outlook (or VISTA) realize I have finished the install?
Later
Charles
June 26, 2007 at 7:25 pm |
Charles,
Did you try the steps to set program compatibility? Check ALL the steps here:
http://miniburb.wordpress.com/outlook-2000-on-vista/
Scott
August 29, 2007 at 10:15 pm |
Just bought a hb dv9000 with vista home premium and cannot even get my copy of office 2000 pro to install. I have used the compatibility wizard and everything else I could think of. The installation starts but then just hangs half way. Tried it on both disks separately and still hangs half way. Any assistance would be appreciated.
August 30, 2007 at 8:45 am |
I figured it out. Programs were on burned disks and I think Microsoft has put a package in vista to recognize that. I moved the files using another computer with XP 2, with a flash drive to the vista hard drive and the installation took place without any problems.
September 12, 2007 at 11:17 am |
I have the exact problem as described above about Word shitting down every 5 minutes with a message saying the program had quit working.
I don’t mess with Outlook as Mozilla’ Firefox/Thunderbird beat the hell out of any MS product.
IMO, Word should work with the greatest piece of crap MS has released.
How many others want to pull your hard drives out, replace them with a new one and install a new copy of XP PRO?
I have a brand new Acer Intel duo core machine and it sucks and between the Acer helpware (which doesn’t) and VISTA’s average of 5 weekly updates – 3 yesterday. I don’t know how to interface with Vista without the ACER helpware
I have had close to 75 updates since 6/15/07 to MS.
September 22, 2007 at 1:41 pm |
I give up ! I try to unstall and use an original release of Office 2000 Premium on my new Desktop delivered (no choice !) with Vista Premium. This version of Office what working perfectly with XP (SP2) but it’s a nigthmare with Vista. Forget about Outlook 2000, It don’t not work but with Word and Excel it’s also very erratic. It take a very long time to load those softwares (Installation look starting again at each load), I got a Microsoft Word 9.9 ???? error message with Word. With Excel I have to load it twice before it work proprelly. The first time I got vertical lignes on the right of the screen I have to close the Windows and load it again to get a correct screen. Hangoffer are very frequent and I loose work several type. After one month I decided to download (free) OpenOffice 2.2 and use it since then on Vista with full satisfaction. I then decided not to spend a penny anymore on Microsoft products. Thry are not fair and don’t deserve any confidence. Next will be problably to replace Vista by Linux. Vista at the moment is definitivly a bad product.
September 29, 2007 at 7:00 pm |
I have Windows Vista and have Office/Outlook 2003. When I create and send a message I keep getting the error message of “The add-in “C:\windows\system32\fxsext32.dll could not be installed or loaded”.
Once I click “ok” on this pop up box the email will finally go through.
I can not find out to fix this problem anywhere.
Help!?
October 12, 2007 at 12:49 pm |
OK – applied both patches…but when I open Outlook now, I get an error message..”Windows – no disk…there is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into the drive.” It does not like any response (cancel, try again, or continue). After I hit “continue” about 4 times, it goes away. VERY ANNOYING! I do not want to upgrade to Office 2007 beacuse I want to be able to share calendar info between Windows XP laptop and now Vista office computer. WHAT A PAIN!
ANY IDEAS?
My old windows disk is a re-install that came with my old Dell PC – scared to put that CD into the cd drive of my new pc!
October 21, 2007 at 7:20 pm |
Outlook is not supported by Vista. I suggest not installing it, but install the main components such as excel and word.
Vista has a mail program called Windows Mail, which is Outlook for Vista in reality.
October 31, 2007 at 9:50 am |
I have installed Office 2000 Premium on Vista without any problem and it all works fine including the contacts. The only glitch I have is Outlook goes through the short setup procedure every time it is opened.
December 15, 2007 at 3:45 pm |
I’ve been having problems with MS Word 2000 on a new Vista Home computer. Excel, Access, Powerpoint and Outlook work okay but I get the following error message with Word:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: WINWORD.EXE
Application Version: 9.0.0.2717
Application Timestamp: 36f08fb3
Hang Signature: 0ffc
Hang Type: 0
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.2
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: e9bffa92584c0fd23b206b4f5fab448b
Additional Hang Signature 2: 555c
Additional Hang Signature 3: 0a63e624e30872fe7384c915e256702a
Additional Hang Signature 4: 0ffc
Additional Hang Signature 5: e9bffa92584c0fd23b206b4f5fab448b
Additional Hang Signature 6: 555c
Additional Hang Signature 7: 0a63e624e30872fe7384c915e256702a
Any ideas what the problem might be? Thanks, Scott
January 13, 2008 at 2:30 pm |
There is three option when you set outlook 2000. The first is:Internet only. This is the one i choose the first time and I had the problem with the Wab DLL.
The second something like :using internet, work group… : I choose few minutes ago and now, everything works fine finally. Maybe I’m wrong and I was lucky but it’s the last action i have done and it’s working.
Sorry for my english but I hope you gonna fix the problem also because I know that is verry annoying.
Goog luck!
January 14, 2008 at 5:48 pm |
ok,
found how to fix the WAB DLL error on outlook
this fix may also other application issues
find the outlook.exe file
normally found in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\
.. right click and select properties
select compatibility tab now select the check run this program in compatibility mode … now select the OS system try XP SP2 or win 2000
should work
now
January 25, 2008 at 4:19 pm |
Dell dot com is still selling laptops with Windows XP. I bought one during Christmas and it works great. Just bought a laptop for a friend’s business 2 days ago and it came with Vista. I was leary about Vista, but it seems to be okay, except that you need 2 gb instead of the installed 1 gb ram to run quickly. The sytem information said that Vista was using 700 mg ram. that is alot. Thanks for the blog, i won’t waste time installing office pro on my friend’s laptop. He will have to buy office 2007, which by the way is totally different from previous versions. His toshiba laptop came with a free trial version. thanks again. When it comes to Dell, i am the man, i have bought 14 Dells in the past 7 years. so if you need help with Dell, try me for some help. bye
mario in Los Angeles, CA
February 6, 2008 at 8:00 am |
Scott,
I need help. I installed Microsoft Office 2000 on a Vista Ultimate Business (i think) laptop and it will not open up any of the office programs. It just tells that me that it has stopped working and there is no solution to the problem. Any idea?
February 9, 2008 at 4:25 am |
Hi everyone, I would like to know if all other programs like Word, Excell, Access, … keep working normally on a Vista (Ultimate, Home Premium,…)
???
February 9, 2008 at 7:16 am |
Hey you guys, have you tried running all the programs under compatibility windows XP service pack 2 and as an admin??
February 25, 2008 at 8:15 am |
I have 2 desktop with Vista Have loaded Office xp onto Vista. One of my desktop works fine but the other didn’t.
when starting Excel, a message appears sayng “One of your object libraries (stdole32.dll) is missing or damaged. Please run setup to install it.” Re-installation does nothing. I have found the file mentioned in the System32 folder.
Has anyone any ideas?
February 29, 2008 at 8:08 am |
Has anyone else had a problem with Office 2000 products installed on Vista taking a long time to open? I have Vista Home Premium (it came with the computer, unfortunately) and installed Office 2000 Professional. I don’t recall having any installation issues (didn’t install Outlook, so no problems there). However, Word and Excel take FOREVER to open. It can take up to 2 MINUTES to open Word, and almost a minute to open Excel. Does anyone know if there are some system settings I can tweak to solve this problem? Access opens fine, and I don’t use PowerPoint enough to care. Thanks.
April 19, 2008 at 8:26 pm |
I installed MS Project 2000 on Vista. This machine had Office 2003 installed. Both worked fine. But once I removed MS Project 2K, whenever I run any office -2003 product, installer pops up and takes sometime to configure Word, Excel etc. In Excel it also says stdole32.tlb missing or corrupted. Uninstalling, reinstalling etc. etc. have not worked. I installed Office XP after removing Office 2003. The same problem continues.
I looked for stdole32.tlb files in this machine. It is there in Windows\system32 directory. I thought it my be corrupted so I tried to copy the file with the same name from Windows 2000. I was able to extract the file from Windows 2000, however, I did not succeed in copying it in Vista(access denied). I am not sure whether stdole32.tlb (from Windows 2000) is same or differnt.
Any ideas to get rid of
(1) installing popping up every time office application is run
(2) getting rid of stdol32.tlb problem in Excel
Thanks in anticipation
May 10, 2008 at 8:13 am |
Byron. You ARE THE MAN! Best solution to date. Works perfect. Thanks.
May 22, 2008 at 7:56 am |
Hi,
recently bought a new laptop with Vista. No MS office was bundled, only free trial of a new acct package.
from what I heard, I’d rather just install my MS office 2000, I have many excel add In’s that have worked wonderfully.
I have my install disk—no longer have my CD key. Need CD key–not going to buy it again-even at a discount-once was enough.
Where can I get a CD 2000 key?. Don’t want Lime wire or any virus potential sites.
Any recommendations??
Thanks
Ron
December 17, 2008 at 11:22 am |
I have installed Office 2000 Premium on Vista without any problem and it all works fine including the contacts. The only glitch I have is Outlook goes through the short setup procedure every time it is opened.
I HAVE SAME PROBLEM AND NO SOLUTION.
March 17, 2009 at 10:53 am |
Thanks for the info.. Outlook now works great. I still have a problem, though. I have the .pst files from my old machine that I found on docs and settings/owner/local settings/application data/microsoft/outlook/outlook.pst. I cannot find where to put the files on my new vista machine. Can you please help me. Thanks again for the great advice on how to get Outlook running on my Vista machine.
April 7, 2009 at 7:10 pm |
Scott, I’ve been reading through your information. My problem is I have installed Office 2000 on my wife’s new laptop running Vista. I updated Office 2000 through SP3, and then all the updates after that one. PP, Excel, Access, and Outlook all appear to work, but Word hangs on startup. Interestingly, after I installed SP2 more of the Word toolbar menu appeared, but the application still did not work. After SP3, back to just hanging at startup with no Word toolbars. Error is AppHangB1. Your blog is mainly for Outlook issues, any ideas for my Word problem. Thanks
April 16, 2009 at 4:38 pm |
OUTLOOK 2000 on VISTA
What a problem given to all sufferers of problems caused by Microsoft. Absolutely disgraceful. Thanks so much to Scott’s Blog with the REINSTALLATION of Outlook and the Copying wab32.dll instructions. 100% successful in just a few minutes instead of complete failure using helplines which consume valuable time and money. (Refund being processed).
Thanks a million Scott.
Kind regards
Michael
May 22, 2009 at 11:58 pm |
I have the same problem as Scott Lee and Scott Silvey. Tried to intall and reinstall Microsoft Office 2000 Premium in my new Window Vista PC; all the other programs work ok , but WORD keeps delivering the same message as Scott Lee (AppHangB1). It worked ok at the first installation, then it started to show the message “Microsoft Word is not responding”. Please, does any one has a solution or recommendation for this. Thanks.
June 8, 2009 at 9:07 pm |
Byron.
Completly agree with Tom You ARE THE MAN! Best solution to date. Works perfect. Thanks.
Technology became too annoying , with those constant changes to force you to upgrate to a higher version.
Thanks to all you guys that expend some time to help others.
Really appreciate
June 29, 2009 at 9:08 pm |
When I originaly got my new laptap with Vista I install excel and word from my office 2000 disk, everything was fine until 1 year later when I had issues with the laptap and they had to put it back to the factory settings. I can’t see to find what disk excel and word are on. Can anyone help I am lost without excel on my laptop?
March 14, 2010 at 6:10 pm |
Can someone give me directions on how to set up a mailing group in my Outlook – on Vista. I have contacts entered but can’t figure out how to form the mailing group. Thanks.
July 24, 2010 at 6:48 am |
Outlook 2000 on XP….. I added the .dll files suggested above into my windows system folder and it did eliminate the “can’t find wab.dll” error but I could still not import my contacts until I changed the compatibility to XP service pack 3. It would not import the pst files but since I also saved them as excel files I was able to impot using the excel files and bang bang! There are my wonderful contacts.
But can someone tell me why I can access my contacts from the left hand navigation bar within outlokk but when I click on the address book above top navigation bar I get no contacts except what I add manually. How can I transfer my contact to the address book?