New computer has no optical drive, how to load Office 2003

I pretty sure I installed office on a machine with Windows 7 off of a flash drive and got it to run after doing all of the updates(I like the idea of sharing the drive-I didn't even think of that)

Windows 8 may be another animal. I've heard that there are lots of copies of Office home student 07 that can be had really cheap in case you run into trouble-Office 07 and 10 are very similar(for everyday use you wouldn't know the difference) as far as I'm concerned.

Copy everything onto a thumb drive and install from that.

Gdetrailer wrote:
Generally you should be able to copy the entire install disc onto a external HD (place the disc contents in a folder on the drive). Then open the folder and run the install.

Same thing can be done with a USB flash drive if you have one with enough space.

This is what I was going to try first.

ncscz wrote:
Insert the DVD in the old computer and then share the drive. Your new computer can install from the shared drive.

Had not thought about that. Seems like that would work.

Mandalay Parr wrote:
Try it. See what happens.

Curious. Was an optical drive an option on the new computer?

Office 2003 may not play on the new OS. Can't remember but seems I had to upgrade to Office 2010 for Windows 7.

2003 Office is running on two of my Windows 7 computers now. Geek at Best Buy said it would play nice with Windows 8.

2003 to 2010 is a two step process. First you upgrade to 2004 and that will upgrade to 2010. This is in website so you don't need a drive to do it.

Bob

Insert the DVD in the old computer and then share the drive. Your new computer can install from the shared drive.

Generally you should be able to copy the entire install disc onto a external HD (place the disc contents in a folder on the drive). Then open the folder and run the install.

Same thing can be done with a USB flash drive if you have one with enough space.

Alternately you can buy a external USB DVD burner drive, just plug in when you need it. Should be able to find those now days for $50-$60.

Food for thought, there are freebee "office" like software available, I use Open Office 3.3 (helpful for opening those stupid "docx" files, not sure if Office 2003 supports that file type but Office 2007 and up does, and EVERYONE sends me those blasted files)..

By optical drive do you mean a DVD? I think whether you get a drive depends on the cost and size of the new computer. Might be easier just to get one so equipped.

Try it. See what happens.

Curious. Was an optical drive an option on the new computer?

Office 2003 may not play on the new OS. Can't remember but seems I had to upgrade to Office 2010 for Windows 7.