Problems with Microsoft Office 2000 and later

There is a longstanding problem with Office. Microsoft introduced Office 2000 with "insert the original CD" copy protection. Office 2003 also suffers similar problems, but later versions do not seem to caused this problem.

This caused so many calls from their Office users, that they had to do something else to get out from under the tech support load. That something MS did was to transfer the support load to software developers like Investors FastTrack.

Whenever you install sophisticated, new software, the Office "Insert CD" messages pop up when starting that new software. This is because FastTrack (and other software) uses Microsoft's "Shared libraries". These libraries are intended for use with other programs besides Office. When FastTrack updates these libraries (as recommended by Microsoft), then Office notices the upgrade and prompts you to update Office.

Try the following search for "office 2000 insert disk"
 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=office+2000+insert+disk&btnG=Google+Search

or

Try the following search for "office 2003 insert disk"
 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=office+2003+insert+disk&btnG=Google+Search

What you get from Google  as of September 2012 is,

About 14,700,000 for office 2003 insert disk.

Now, we wish that there were 14 million plus FastTrack users posting questions about this problem on the web, but fact is that this Office problem occurs for millions of folks using thousands of software products other than FastTrack.

Here  to overcome the problem with Office

• Do what the messages ask you to do and insert your Office CD. The messages go away forever.
  You have satisfied Microsoft's copy protection checker.
• OR,
  Click cancel (AGAIN AND AGAIN) on the message boxes.
  They will eventually stop and you can use FastTrack normally. However, you'll be canceling every time you use FastTrack and likely other newly installed/upgraded software on your computer (BUT Office applications like Word and Excel don't give messages. Bill Gates was smart enough NOT to display "insert CD" when you run Office stuff  )
• OR,
  Uninstall YOUR Office and buy a later version of Office.
  Later versions have online copy-protection instead of CD-based copy protection.

September 2012

Actually you can still get Office 2000 update online, but its tougher to find. The link currently  is
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=EN&id=14190

The link for Office 2003 is
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8

What does Microsoft says to Office Users?

Call them (800) 936-5700.

We used to have 5-links here to Microsoft comments, but they are all now dead as of September 2012.

What does Microsoft says to Software Developers like FastTrack?

This is what we learned after paying Microsoft a $299 consulting fee (several years ago) in a effort to learn how to solve the Microsoft's Office problem .

"Tell your users that they should have kept the original CD and that they are not authorized to use Office without it. They can make the problem go away by uninstalling their illegal copy of Office and buying the latest Office versions."

The above is a quote from a Microsoft support technician, not FastTrack. Given that MS caused the problem for all Office users, legal or not, I find the MS tech's comment unhelpful.

FastTrack's Position

We will be courteous in assisting you with this Office problem. However, beyond pointing you to this web page, there is little we can do. We regret that this problem occurs after installing FastTrack for some Office users. We cannot correct or stop this Office behavior.

If you elect to uninstall FastTrack, we will assist you, however, you can expect that this problem will occur with other software at some point in the future since IT IS NOT a FastTrack problem.