Access 2007 periodically reinstalls itself

[Jennifer Murphy]

I am running Access 2007 on an old Win XP system. Every once in awhile, when I open Access, I get a series of pop-up messages indicating that it is re-installing itself. The first message says, "Preparing to install...". Then I get one that says something like, "Configuring Office 2007..." with a progress bar. These pop-ups alternate a few times. After a few minutes, it all stops and Access opens normally. After that, Access opens right up without these messages for a few days or weeks, then it happens again.



Can anyone shed any light on what is happening and if there is anything I can or need to do about it (other than upgrade to new computers and a newer version of Office)?

Thanks

[ItsMe]

Are you opening the same file from more than one computer? For instance, computer A has Access 2013 installed and computer B has Access 2007 installed. Then, you use each of the two computers to open the same file, file X.

[Jennifer Murphy]

Are you opening the same file from more than one computer? For instance, computer A has Access 2013 installed and computer B has Access 2007 installed. Then, you use each of the two computers to open the same file, file X.

Nope, everything is on one computer. No Access data is shared. I do have two computers, a laptop and a desktop. They are connected by a LAN and there are some shared folders and we have one case management application that runs on both machines. But the two Office installations are both 2007 and they are not shared. This only occurs with Access -- not Outlook, Word, or Excel.

[ItsMe]

It is hard to say. If you are running XP and connected to the internet, Office 2007 may still be receiving updates while XP is not. The updates from Office and Windows used to be totally separate. I do not know how the new way of receiving updates to Office may impact your machine.

I might expect to see something like you are describing when opening a file for the first time. But I might consider corruption of the file or the install of Access if it persisted.

The other thing that comes to mind is your Access file is using a feature that was not part of the original install of Access/Office. In other words, the installer did not choose, "Run All from Computer", or something along those lines. It used to be that you would have to dig out the DVD from a drawer and install the files/component desired if it was not part of the original install. Now, this type of thing is managed over the internet. Not sure how Office 2007 manages this.

Anyway, if I had to pick one thing, I would guess corruption of the Access file. Then I would suspect some sort of compatibility issue with the file being opened and XP trying to understand the machine's hardware, drivers, etc. as it fails to do a proper just in time compilation.

[Jennifer Murphy]

It is hard to say. If you are running XP and connected to the internet, Office 2007 may still be receiving updates while XP is not. The updates from Office and Windows used to be totally separate. I do not know how the new way of receiving updates to Office may impact your machine.

You may be onto something. XP actually is receiving updates even though M$FT said it wouldn't. In fact, a set of updates to both Office and XP were installed last night. And then I got the message this morning. I bet something that was affected by the update caused Access to need to "reinstall" something. I'll have to pay attention to see if this happens again if there were updates.

In any case, it never seems to cause a problem.

Thanks

[ItsMe]

In any case, it never seems to cause a problem.

It may not be anything to worry about. But, yeah, you want to upgrade your O.S. and make copies of your Access file on a regular basis. There are ways of automating backups, also.

[pbaldy]

You don't by chance and an older version of Access installed on the computer as well as 2007? Your experience sounds like what happened when I ran 2007 after running 2000 on a machine with both. It was well known and many called it the "coffee break" install.

[Jennifer Murphy]

It may not be anything to worry about. But, yeah, you want to upgrade your O.S. and make copies of your Access file on a regular basis. There are ways of automating backups, also.

That's all in the plan. Unfortunately, I have a couple of contingencies that I have to resolve first.

[Jennifer Murphy]

You don't by chance and an older version of Access installed on the computer as well as 2007? Your experience sounds like what happened when I ran 2007 after running 2000 on a machine with both. It was well known and many called it the "coffee break" install.

Could be, but not in active use. As I recall, these machines came with Office 2003 (or maybe 97) installed. A few years ago, I bought two copies of Office 2007 and installed them. I thought I told it to overwrite the previous installation and I have never used any pre-2007 applications as far as I know.

In any case, my plan is to replace the computers in the next month or so with all fresh installations.

PS: You don't want to hear what I think of John Galt.

[ItsMe]

You don't by chance and an older version of Access installed on the computer as well as 2007? Your experience sounds like what happened when I ran 2007 after running 2000 on a machine with both. It was well known and many called it the "coffee break" install.

That's a good tidbit of info, for sure.