OFF95: Error Running Compatible Demo from Shared CD

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Office for Windows 95, version 7.0

SYMPTOMS

When you run one of the Office Compatible Demos from the Office Shortcut Bar, you may receive an error message similar to the following:

   "..\3DEYE\TRISPECT.PPT"

   Sorry, the path or filename is invalid.

When you click OK, the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer dialog box appears, prompting you to locate the demo file.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when you perform a Run From CD installation of Microsoft Office from a shared CD. Microsoft Office version 7.0 supports running Setup from a CD that is shared over the network. However, the problem described above occurs when you run one of the Office-compatible demos after performing a Run From CD installation of Office from a shared CD because the shortcut to the demo uses a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path, and you cannot run an Office compatible demo using a UNC path.

Note that this problem does not occur when you perform a Run From CD installation of Office from a CD located in your computer's CD-ROM drive.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, you can modify the Target for the Office Compatible shortcut so that it does not use a UNC path by doing the following:

1. Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to locate the Office Compatible shortcut. This shortcut is located in the \Shortcut Bar\Office folder in the folder to which you installed Microsoft Office.

2. Click the right mouse button on the Office Compatible shortcut, and click Properties.

3. Click the Shortcut tab.

4. In the Target box, change the UNC path to a persistent path by adding the drive letter to the path. For example, if the path appears as

         \\Computer\Share\Office\ValuPack\Ofcompat\Browser.exe
   

   change the path to the following:

         <drive>:\Office\ValuPack\Ofcompat\browser.exe
   

   where <drive> is the letter that you are using for the network drive connection to the shared Office CD.

5. Click OK.

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.