Installing Microsoft Office 4.2 on the $5 Windows 98 PC!

[@johncgh]

An idea, make a power point presentation in Power Point 4.2 and see if you can still open it in new versions, and check what stays and what not, like the saga for Windows 1.0 to Windows 7

[@atonysomething]

what about new to old?

[@near5148]

Hello world

[@homg85]

You can. Tried it.

[@aceoyame2619]

@@atonysomething new documents are in XML which pre office 2007 has no idea about. Though 2003 he a compatibility pack for the XML based files. If you used the non XML file types you might get have a shot

[@jaykebird2go]

@@atonysomething going new to old isn't as easy, unfortunately. there's a couple of cutoff points. Obviously, with Office 2007, they implemented the new Open XML format (DOCX, XSLX, PPTX, etc.) which older versions can't open at all... unless you install the add-in available for Office 2000, 2002, or 2003 (97 and earlier were left in the dust lol). Anything from Office 2007 up until now can read all of the Open XML documents, and the add-in allows the older versions to open and save them too, although it's more of an import and export process rather than true native support. Office 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003 all share a file format (for the main three, being Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), so creating a document in one of those versions can be opened in all of the others. And of course, modern Office can still open the older formats too. So as of right now, with the latest version of Office, you can create a Word document and save it in the Word 97-2003 format, and open it in Word 97. The other Office programs, like Access and Outlook, had file format changes over these versions, so you can't easily do this with those. Prior to Office 97, each version of Office (or the individual program, before Office was a thing) technically had its own format (simplifying here). I don't know how much these formats differed, so it's possible that you could, say, open a Word 2.0 document in Word 1.0 without issue, but I wouldn't know. I do know there are separate options for them in the Word 97 save file dialog though (as well as separate options for Word for Mac). And modern versions of Office no longer support saving to these older formats.

[@BasementBerean]

I am a retired IT professional. I remember when Office 95 was released. I went to a Microsoft event in downtown Seattle, and they gave me a stack of software in boxes, including this I think. So, they loaded me up with a stack of software, and I asked them if they had bags, and they said no! So I left with an awkward-to-carry stack of software wondering what to do, and thinking that this was typical of Microsoft not thinking the end user experience all the way through.

[@Gabriel-kl6bt]

This huge box is indeed too much but I don't think it is "not thinking the end user". It is all about the end user these products.

[@nogoat]

@@Gabriel-kl6bt I think he meant that Microsoft didn't bother handing out bags to carry all the boxes.

[@brostenen]

I started to use computers around 1985, when I was 9 years old. But I have been using computers from that time to today. I have seen the evolution in home computers. I say that since 1997, there have not really been any real innovation in the hardware field as such. It has all been more or less just extreme refinement of already invented technologies since 1997. Refinement and repacking of technology. But thibgs have become really fast in short bursts and horse powers have been evolving extremely since then.

[@brostenen]

@@Gabriel-kl6bt Well.... Dont look for 1970's boxes then. Those will make this box look tiny. 😁

[@謝倫-b9o]

lol indeed

[@marcp.]

The artworks they used during the installation process just were so nice !

[@brostenen]

I remember when going from Dos only to Win 3.11 back in the days. That would be around some 1993'ish. And the feeling of seing that gradiant blue/lightblue background and the square window. Was like getting a luxury version of the Workebench on Amiga. I really loved the install screen's on Win3.11 but PC's were still not up on par with Amiga's at that point in time. Graphically Win was more beautifull that Workbench 3.0 however the Amiga still had more power generally speaking. But then I bought a 486dx2-66 VLB system in the start of 1995, and I only went back to Amiga between 2004 and 2006. And then again in 2017 and still use them for nostalgia today. My daily driver is in fact running Linux because I like it and have been using it first time back in 1995. I used Windows as a daily driver up to 2016. Win7 was the last version I used, and still say it is the best MS have released.

[@marcp.]

@@brostenen I started my Windows journey in 1992 with 3.1 and have experienced nearly every version of Windows that came after. Even if todays computer probably got thousand times the power they had back then, I feel like everything becomes always more minimalistic and less polished, maybe even less fun. For more those artworks in the video really stand for the golden era of the late 80s, early 90s. I don't see it as nostalgia but just as a general observation or conclusion.

[@brostenen]

@@marcp. We all experience things differently. Nostalgia is such a strange thing. To some it is something and the next person it is something totally different. Personally I am most happy to have experienced the home computer from that second wave. You know, the middle of the 8bit generation that overlapped the 16bit and forward. However I have never cared for Win8 to Win10/11. I have gone the Linux way, in order to still connect with the do-it-yourself way of using a computer. Windows have just gotten way too polished and automated for my taste.

[@judgewest2000]

my first tech job was in '96 when i was 16 years old. i had this installed on top of windows 3.11 on a bunch of diskless workstations in a high school in the UK and just remembered thinking, it cannot get any better than this...

[@NobodyisAnybody]

But it did lol

[@inthegrass11]

those workstations are still there to this day, if I know anything about UK schools haha

[@minix07]

@@NobodyisAnybody yup

[@superknux13isaid]

15:56 "Printer Ink - $900,000.00" Michael is a comedic genius, as always.

[@himearikawa3130]

His printer ink is only $900,000.000? Mines $1,000,000,000.

[@me67galaxylife]

i don't think it was even supposed to be a joke

[@kami-kun_va]

nah just $99

[@EllaBee90]

I know a LOT of people who would love to get pop-up "How To" windows like in 1994 just so they could properly learn how to use their computer. Even the click once or click twice is hard to comprehend for some.

[@near5148]

I'm used to click twice

[@NobodyisAnybody]

It feels so weird that it was like that

[@SupraBlack-dp4zz]

I like Office 2003 and it's GUI. Although it took me a bit to get used to the ribbon, I still prefer keyboard shortcuts over a mouse any day.

[@kantraa]

@@SupraBlack-dp4zz You should use Linux with a WM then.

[@Joesgamesntech]

@Sirius The Kitten Midi Channel And people without autism, you’re not smarter just because you don’t have autism. It’s actually mostly old people

[@SleepyMechanic]

I remember my school was huge on teaching computer typing. They gave us a floppy disk to save documents on and spent a few weeks learning EVERY feature of office. This brought back so many memories

[@richardsequeirateixeira]

Yeah learning how to use MS Office in high school was definitely a nice thing that I actually use at work.

[@tophergraham6935]

A critical skill. It seems schools don't teach even the basics of computing now, and as a result we have a young workforce who can use a Facebook app on an iPad but are completely incapable of making a basic spreadsheet or writing a document.

[@yusefaslam9675]

Here in the UK, they do teach this in primary school, I know because I went to primary school in the UK and they taught us how to make spreadsheets and stuff, I don't remember how to use Excel anymore tho because I haven't used it in years. Lol

[@theforerunnerreclaimer]

The $5 windows 98 PC is the staple of this channel

[@BEAUMAN5]

Lol

[@Holdenwhite96]

Yes

[@PhilipMurphy8Extra]

Actually having some applications on the top of the screen would be quite useful in Windows 3.1, For quick access to things back then before the Start Menu.

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

PowerPoint was actually a Classic Macintosh application from 1987! It was originally called "Presenter" and was developed by Forethought

[@SupraBlack-dp4zz]

I totally forgot about that bar on the top of the screen when installing that older version of Office. Flashback!

[@BrunovskyPlays]

This is so nostalgic, I remember using this app launcher back in Windows 95 and maybe 98, I loved to customize it with other applications! Great video!

[@philreed1605]

Me too, my dad was so cross when they removed that feature (maybe Office 2000?)

[@airfixer9461]

Great one Michael, right up my alley. Interesting to tell people : Office 4.3 Professional is the same thing but with an extra! 4.3 Prof. was initially released with Access 1.1 and a coupon for a free upgrade towards Access 2.0 when that was released some time later. (Ms tried to discourage users to buy competitors products by announcing new releases of Ms products like Access 2.0 although they weren't ready at the time they released this package. Well done Michael...🙂

[@sandyred1140]

From a user with Office 4.3, Word was updated from 6.0a to 6.0c.

[@richiesmeckgeckscas46]

Seeing that PowerPoint presentation you made looked very nostalgic to me, and I didn't even grow up with this version of Office. I think I grew up with Office 2003 Still, it was interesting to look at what Microsoft Office was like back then!

[@abcd1239me]

I was taught with Word Perfect, on a coax network 386 machine that when booted from floppy it pulled the Windows 3.11 for workgroups off a server. While at home I was using a custom built 486 DX 2 66 machine with 24megs of ram, and Windows 95.

[@marccaselle8108]

Eek! A 486 trying to run windows 95. That must have been horrible.

[@alexj.f.kennedy6084]

Guess I have that installed on my Windows 95 Laptop, unless there was a sepcial 6.0 release for businesses back in the day. The Word program I have on there is 6.0, still nice to see how old it actually is!

[@askhowiknow5527]

I’m amazed how little has changed under the hood. The most important features I use everyday were there in that version. They haven’t really added anything that I have to use

[@brandonupchurch7628]

Unless it happens to be Office 4.x for NT systems, I think that might be able to run on 95, I think the only difference between the NT version and the regular version is the NT version has 32bit versions of Word and Excel but powerpoint is still 16bit.

[@richardsequeirateixeira]

@@askhowiknow5527 just comes to show that newest doesn’t always mean best. You can still be productive with the older versions of Office

[@IunahYT]

sepcial

[@alexj.f.kennedy6084]

@@IunahYT darn typos

[@visassess8607]

This is actually pretty cool to see. My earliest computer memories were playing WW2 flight sims on a big tan desktop with my dad on Windows XP. Interesting to look back on some of this stuff that I wasn't around for.

[@computerkid1416]

It's amazing how little some of these programs have actually changed over the years.

[@Solaceon]

For sure. I used Office 03 up until 2016.

[@brostenen]

Humans want something they recognise. That is why.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

And yet Microsoft still find a way to charge you for a product that's essentially fundamentally unchanged in over 20 years.

[@brostenen]

@@FlyboyHelosim Well... After all, MS is the ones that made home computer owners able to use an operating systems. They did it before Apple were a thing and even before Woz created his Apple 1 machine.

[@BoraHorzaGobuchul]

Well, if you use your excel for shopping lists, it's easy to miss progress. If you're doing something more complicated, new versions really shine.

[@tinyostechs]

The Best comeback of the 98PC, great video (As Always)!

[@JesBuscus94]

Damn that receipt was printed the literal day I was born

[@Eyetrauma]

6:09 I didn’t realize that so many installers from this era modified their own install disks. I’ve been checking out a bunch of Mac Garden stuff lately and it’s crazy how many tainted disk images are the only versions available. Netware installers also. Most people can live with the pre-filled registration data of course but from a preservation standpoint…

[@miro007ist]

Fantastic video quality Michael! The camera picks up the computer screen beautifully!

[@ghostofdre]

Only 900000 for ink, must be one of the new efficient inkjets.

[@psionski]

That “communicating bad news” content wizard, though... “honey, you know how grandma was not feeling well? Well, come here, sit down, let me just get my clicker...”

[@CMA_The_Dope_Man]

I found a boxed copy of Office 4.2 in the trash bin at the high school I was attending in 9th grade. Took that shit home with me. Unfortunately it didn't have the floppies, but it did have everything else in it. Been sitting on my bookshelf ever since I found it 12 years ago.

[@ray.upside-down]

The printer ink expense is so relatable that Excel 365 has a breakdown everytime I calculate that

[@angeltoad4657]

My entire life is a mjd video

[@CEO100able]

This version of Microsoft Office had a decent variety for its time.

[@HrutkayMods]

Michael, I used office professional 2003 up into I believe around windows 7, around that time I finally “upgraded” to office 2007 which I still use on occasion on windows 10… I want to see how this acts in later versions of windows. I know 2003 and 2007 both had official and unofficial patches to make them more compatible in later versions of windows… Perhaps they had some for 4.2?

[@Yui714]

It's cool that you used to be able to run Excel without paying $144 in yearly subscription fees. Same old adding numbers and letters into squares software. 30 years later and they're selling it for a record-breaking premium price even though its the same thing.

[@techtriggr]

Goodjob MJD. Ure uploading frequently and they're pretty long which recomends the video widely. And Ure getting good content.

[@NoahClevinger]

Michael MJD videos on the weekend just hit different.

[@ilikemtrain]

I used Windows 98 on my father's PC and I can still remember the toolbar at the top, but I actually quite hate this bar and the first thing for me to use his computer was to close the toolbar.

[@BALtimore2001]

Really nice! Can you show me the presentation you created in PowerPoint?

[@pjchacon]

My first job as a Microsoft intern in Ecuador, back in 1994, was evangelization of Office 4.2. Many of the most important features in today's Office were already in this version (albeit, perhaps not as efficiently working as today). My favorite topics to talk about were Embedded Objects (e.g. add a dynamic Excel table in Word), mail merge (it has almost not changed at all in over 20 years), and Tracking Changes. I also remember how much pain was to fulfill replacements diskettes for customers. Two of us would spend entire weekends at the office, making copies of Office and Windows diskettes using all the 20 computers in the office to accelerate the process (and merge in Word to print the stickers).

[@AvidSonicFan]

I'm gonna be the first to say this... this program-launcher bar really sounds to me like a precursor to the taskbar in Windows 95.

[@jaykebird2go]

In some ways I guess it kinda is! It is also present in Office 97 for Windows 95/98/NT as well, actually; they just renamed it the "Shortcut Bar".

[@blainepalmerza]

Awesome video, Michael!

[@LunaManar]

It warms my heart that you understand proper capitalization in titles.

[@joshpayne4015]

In fall of 1994 or in spring of 1995 I remember installing a boxed set of Microsoft Office on 3.5 inch floppy diskettes onto my PC. It was an amazing and frustratingly lengthy experience and I was afraid that half way through I'd somehow put in a disk that had a disk error on it. But it finished correctly, much to my relief! So I understand your experience here in this video.

[@TransbianKitty]

Well, you've convinced me to go back in time and purchase Microsoft Office 4.2!

[@techtriggr]

7:08 Ah, what an MJD classic over there.

[@Mr.Thursday]

Must be great for those with focus deficiency, also for some reason it is a kind of an app that follows KISS rule.

[@CoffeeStar1118]

So entertaining! I was using WP5.1 for DOS until we got a Win95 computer and Office 95. Although I think my highschool may have had MS Office for Win3.1 as well as WordPerfect for Windows, but as a WP user I always just used WP for Windows at school. I absolutely loved your lol PPT example! I never had any use for PPT in high school, but I'm going back to college next fall, so I just might give it a try for any presentations I many need to give. I do remember PPT slideshows at work, though. Both transparencies and slides, and eventually they got one of those transparency screens to mirror your screen where you would put the acetate transparencies. So many memories, lol.

[@davinp]

If you are interested, that Windows 3.1 file manager is available in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10

[@shana_dmr]

This brought back my PTSD of reinstalling Windows 3.1 and Office 4.2 in school lab full of 386 SX computers from big pile of dodgy """backup""" floppies. You started the installation process on one computer then just passed along to the next one disk by disk. There had been at least two times I drove home on bike to snatch my private """copies""" because disk 14 or so failed and school was too cheap to buy few packs of spare floppies (and in all honesty even if they did nobody would make these backups, there's always something more important to do) :)

[@loganjoy-koer5936]

16:16 spending that much on printer ink buys you enough to last at least a month, maybe a year.

[@brostenen]

I actually used it, during education in 1995 on Win 3.11 for workgroups. I remember loving the splash screen of Word when loading it

[@stest2935]

I still have a Boxed floppy box set of this Office 4.2 along with Borland and other softwares in my storage and every time I looked through them it brought so much memory. My kids would not know this because they have this wifi cloud installation of apps that can install automatically while they are asleep or doing something else.

[@cutieclysm]

love the video michael! keep up the great work 💖😁

[@Gabriel-kl6bt]

Lovely. I love these old software thing.

[@MegaMarian12350]

7:14 Since then everytime the pop-up appeared to insert the next floopy disk, I read "Insert disk X" 😅

[@8bitkoopatroopa750]

Oh man, just found your channel What a great content New sub!

[@MichaelMJD]

Thank you so much for subscribing!

[@AryanGamez]

I was watching a $5 Win 98 PC Vid From You When You Posted it :)

[@Azuris190]

I am pretty asounished, where did you get that cheap Printer Ink? Normally it is super expansive!

[@andresbravo2003]

Good old Office 4.2... I remember that one that I watched the Windows 95 17th birthday video by danooct1 of course. However this could be unique.

[@kusucks991]

19:09 I want to see what "Communicating Bad News" looks like 😂

[@oussamadaferio]

oh wow first time im early watching a yt video + its a new MJD video nice !

[@thesocial2558]

It feels illegal to be this early, less than an hour, wow

[@thesocial2558]

That ink is kinda cheap

[@donmahoney8023]

Man, your video about; "Installing Microsoft Office 4.2 on the $5 Windows 98 PC!" Brings back memories the Win98 PC you show in the video was the first PC I ever purchased.

[@chickenjoy]

I didn't know MS FoxPro is included. Wow.

[@avocatdelamusique9778]

I just love videos like these! I immediately want to launch a PC emulator on my phone and just mess around with old software! 🤣 It's something about older software, sadly, I don't own any of old PCs or laptops, had a huge stash of them before my parents got rid of. Sad.

[@lemonrev]

fun fact. if you make a directory / folder on your computer then make directory's / folders named "Disk1" through to whatever number you need with no space you can install windows disks on a hard drive direct :) As for the two other disks im not too sure..

[@matieltechnology1325]

19:51 Microsoft just launched that in Word Online Michael, i think they removed and 30 years later they put It back

[@frankiemouse992]

You should've opened these documents with a modern version of Office!

[@wordart_guian]

the autocontent wizard was in many versions, and microsoft removed it because people used it uncritically - they would just use the unmodified template and project that, without any text of their own. it's one of the features that powerpoint's creator didn't make or like

[@wordart_guian]

you know what I want to see installed? office 1.0 for macintosh (the CD-rom version if it's even possible)

[@Ardauxca]

That PowerPoint presentation has convinced me that Microsoft Office 4.2 is THE version to use. Now I must head over to E-bay to claim my copy!

[@OptimusMonk01]

Mac version of Office 4.2 is the best version of Office ever made. It was all downhill after that. Also, the only version that ran on an Amiga.

[@marksmith9566]

Amazing no drama except long files names!

[@BilisNegra]

5:59 This is interesting. I assume the protection tab of at least that disk was originally in the write enable position, so the setup program could mark it as already used for installation? If not, I wonder what kind of clever method they used.

[@rzysf59]

i remember this, i used to come to my dad's office every weekend to use these...

[@NobodyisAnybody]

4:01 well that SUCS

[@brandonupchurch7628]

I don't think I've ever seen a physical box of Office 4.x, When I seen the beginning of the video I thought that box looks kinda small to have so many floppies in it until you rotated it and I realized, oh, it's a cube. I've always cheated to install Office 4.3 on retro machines using a network share, maybe I should torture myself one day installing it off floppy, I installed 95 on a 386SX machine with only 4MB of ram once with the 13 floppies and the slowness of the machine it took nearly 3 hours

[@Tegelane5]

I copied all disks to harddrive and then ran setup, this way there was no need to wait for insert disk number X. I there was room to "waste" though.

[@Holdenwhite96]

Love the vids since 2019

[@blahajenthusiast101]

I have a Toshiba satellite, still holds up (tough pretty noisy) and I use it to play MsDos games, I love that laptop

[@aaroncook7709]

Like how it says it contains 3.5" disks and has a coupon for 5.25" disks in the box (3:30). Talk about a change of era. Back in high school I took a class for MS Office 95. Of course we all had assigned seats (computers) and I was stuck with an old 486 system running Win95. Most of the other classmates had early Pentium II systems and had to wait for slow people like me.

[@BluesCluesTheWigglesFTW]

Did you fail the class? Nah. JK! I also had to deal with a slow computer once back in my senior year, especially a chrome computer. They tend to start up slowly, for some odd reason!

[@maximtarna6669]

21:05 this is good feature what needs to be added in MS Office 2022 :)

[@varshajadhav5826]

the classic mjd music makes it all.......

[@GreenDavidA]

I remember when Office 2010 came out and they removed the toolbar, and a bunch of people at the school district that I worked at the time FREAKED OUT.

[@thepikachugamer]

0:18 did you also know windows *95* released in 1995? coincidence?

[@pinroshan020]

Did you also know no one cares about your comment?

[@shiina617]

Love all of your videos～！

[@euclideszoto997]

There was an MS office professional 4.3 for Win 3.1 and it had a cd including discs.

[@mchenrynick]

Oooooo those long filenames. I remember them being restricted to 8 characters long back then!

[@CathrineMacNiel]

II am so nostalgic for those interface and how they look :(

[@ilikeminecraft1232]

Nope

[@sucharekk]

"Just buy it already" - Michael MJD 2022

[@georgeh6856]

The version of Word in this video is 6. There was Word for Windows 2, then Word 6, but no Word 3, 4, or 5. I asked a Microsoft rep about this at the now-defunct computer show COMDEX at the time. She said the reason Microsoft went from version 2 to version 6 is that they standardized the code base between Word for Windows and Word for Mac, and that the Mac version of Word was already at 6. So this totally was not because their main competitor Wordperfect was already at a higher version number. Because Microsoft never does shady, underhanded things.

[@theol1044]

Before Word 6.0 came out, Word for Mac was at version 5.1a. Microsoft did indeed unify the code base for the Windows and Mac versions, based on the Windows version. Both were released at the same time. For Mac, Word 6.0 was a big change, and largely hated among Mac users. This led to the creation of the Macintosh Business Unit inside Microsoft who overhauled the Mac version to make it more Mac-like. The result was Office 98 for Mac.

[@elit3darkness]

Everything went so smooth... Are we sure this is an MJD Video?

[@whatsindansgarage2542]

The beauty before subscription scheme.

[@attack0nmem0ry]

Hey MJD! Great video today. Who do you consider to be amongst your KZbin channel peers?

[@ThrillaDX]

Would love to see this installed on Windows 10, specifically that shortcut bar at the top of the screen and how many of those would work.

[@mattemz00]

Never thought watching someone create a PowerPoint presentation could be so entertaining 🤣

[@allezvenga7617]

Thanks for your sharing

[@UltiMaker2]

I enjoyed this one a lot, especially because of the $900,000 printer ink and the 25 floppy diskettes

[@TheFlyingScotsman]

$900,000 for printer ink? You need HP Instant Ink. Does it work wtih a LaserJet 4?

[@colddogs]

i still use notepad to strip font formatting from pasted text before adding it to a word document or outlook email. i wonder if it could have been of similar use back in those days?

[@Z64bit]

I always just assume when they skip numbers it means those were beta versions

[@DavidWonn]

Technically Office 4.3 was the last 16-bit version, with its main advantage over 4.2 being the inclusion of Access.

[@MichaelMJD]

That’s why I said “major release” when describing 4.0, but yeah.

[@davidjamgochian]

great show

[@davidrmcmahon]

I still miss that UI

[@Chell_Portal]

I will buy Windows Office 4.2, thanks to you!