OFF97: Problems Occur After Removing MS Internet Explorer 4.0

• Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows
• Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for Windows
• Microsoft Access 97
• Microsoft Outlook 97
• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 for Windows 95
• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 for Windows NT 4.0

SYMPTOMS

If you remove Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 from a computer on which Microsoft Office 97 is installed, the following problems may occur when you run the programs included in Microsoft Office 97:

• When you attempt to insert a hyperlink in Microsoft Excel 97, Microsoft Word 97, or Microsoft PowerPoint 97, the Insert Hyperlink dialog box does not appear, and you are unable to insert a hyperlink.
• In Microsoft Excel 97, when you open a workbook that contains a hyperlink, you receive the following error message:

        File error: data may have been lost.
  

  The hyperlink does not work when you click it.

• In Microsoft Word 97, when you open a document that contains a hyperlink, the hyperlink does not work when you click it. Note that when this behavior occurs, you do not receive an error message.
• In Microsoft PowerPoint 97, the AutoContent Wizard does not work.
• The Internet icon may be missing from Control Panel.

CAUSE

These problems may occur when the following conditions are true:

• You install Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 on your computer BEFORE you install Microsoft Office 97.

  -and-

• You then remove Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 from your computer.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, reinstall Microsoft Office 97. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings and click Control Panel. Then, double-click Add/Remove Programs.

2. In the list of installed programs, click Microsoft Office 97. Then, click Add/Remove.

3. When the Microsoft Office 97 Setup dialog box appears, click Reinstall.

NOTE: If you used the Microsoft Office 97, Service Release 1 (SR-1) Patch to upgrade your version of Microsoft Office 97, you must reinstall the patch so that the reinstalled Office files may be updated.

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

When you install Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 on a computer, the Setup program creates a backup copy of any files that it replaces. If you remove Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 from the computer, the backup copies of the files are automatically restored by the Setup program. This allows other programs to continue functioning correctly even if they use the same files as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.

However, if you install Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 before you install Microsoft Office 97, the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Setup program does not make backup copies of the files used by Microsoft Office 97. As a result, if you remove Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 from the computer, the Setup program may remove files from the computer that are used by both Microsoft Office 97 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.

Specifically, the following files are removed:

   Asycfilt.dll   Msencode.dll
   Comcat.dll     T2embed.dll
   Hlink.dll      Urlmon.dll
   Html32.cnv     Vbscript.dll
   Inetcpl.cpl    Wininet.dll
   Msconv97.dll