I recently tried to install Word 97 on my Windows XP Home
system and got the following error message after install
was completed: "This application has failed to start
because MS097.DLL was not found. Re-installing the
application may fix this problem". This error message was
associated with the files "findfast.exe"
and "winword.exe" which could not be launched because the
MS097.DLL file could not be found. Re-installing the
application did not solve the problem.
I looked on the Internet and found a post which noted
that "If you load Outlook 2000 on a computer and you had
Office 97, and then reload Office 97 because you need it,
you get the "MS097.DLL" error message sending you in a
vicious-circle trying to solve the problem". I did load
Outlook 2000 and Word 97 had previously been on my
computer (a transfer from a Windows 98 system). When I
tried to re-install Word 97 I got the MS097.DLL error
message. Another poster to a site on the Internet noted
that the file "mso97.dll" is on the office 97 CD in the
Office directory. He recommended copying the file to the
c:\program files\microsoft office\office directory or, if
that didn't work, to the c:\windows\system\directory. I
could not find the file on my Word 97 CD (Microsoft Home
Essentials 98).
How can I resolve this problem using my Windows Home
Essentials 98 CD (which includes Word 97) and/or the
Internet? Is there a work around for this problem? Thanks
for any help offered.