XL7: MS Query Doesn't Work After Installing Visual Basic 5.0

• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Office for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Query for Windows 95, version 2.0
• Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0, Enterprise Edition

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 7.0, if you click either Get External Data or "Refresh Data on the Data menu," you may receive the following error messages:

   Error Starting Program
   A required .DLL file, MSO97RT.DLL, was not found.

   -and-

   Microsoft Excel
   Cannot execute MSQRY32.EXE.

   -and-

   Microsoft Excel
   Couldn't restore connection to original database. Data not restored.

CAUSE

You receive these error messages if you install Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0, Enterprise Edition, and Microsoft Excel 7.0 on the same computer.

Specifically, the problem occurs because Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0, Enterprise Edition, includes new versions of the following Microsoft Query files:

   Msqry32.exe
   Qryint32.dll

Note that the problem does not occur if you install Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0, Professional Edition. Note also that the order in which you install the programs does not matter.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, remove the new copies of Msqry32.exe and Qryint32.dll, and then replace them with the Msqry32.exe and Qryint32.dll files included with Microsoft Excel 7.0. To do this, use either of the following methods.

Method 1

Copy the Msqry32.exe and Qryint32.dll files from a computer on which Microsoft Excel 7.0 is installed to the following folder on your computer:

   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Msquery

Method 2

To use this method, follow these steps:

1. In Windows Explorer, open the Msquery folder on your computer.

2. Rename the existing copies of Msqry32.exe and Qryint32.dll.

3. On the Start menu, point to Settings, and click Control Panel.

4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.

5. In the list of installed programs, click Microsoft Office Professional or Microsoft Office Standard. Then, click Add/Remove.

6. When it appears, click Reinstall.

NOTE: If you do not rename the existing copies of the files first (see steps 1 and 2), this process does not work.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel 7.0, when you click Get External Data or Refresh Data on the Data menu, Microsoft Excel invokes an instance of Microsoft Query, which performs the process of querying and updating the data.

Because the Microsoft Query files included with Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0, Enterprise Edition, are incompatible with Microsoft Excel 7.0, you may not be able to perform new queries (Get External Data) or update existing queries (Refresh Data) if you install both programs on the same computer.