Can these Office 97 features accessed? Can they still be accessed now in later Versions?

❤️♫Vendetta69♫❤️ 41 Reputation points
2021-01-19T23:38:08.447+00:00

Hi I have a multi part question. I happened across an article in an old PC mag and it identified the following as having Easter Eggs

  • Excel called Halls of lost souls
  • 97 Excel as having a flight simulator
  • 97 Access as having Magic 8 Pool and
  • Office 97 Word as having Pinball in it.
  • Office 2000 as Having Dev Hunter.

Is this true? How did you activate them? Do you think running later Office versions as the earlier versions would allow me to open them? For example running Access 2016 as 97 in options?

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  1. Emily Hua-MSFT 27,526 Reputation points
    2021-01-20T10:03:08.503+00:00

    @❤️♫Vendetta69♫❤️

    > Is this true? How did you activate them?

    As Microsoft Office 97 and Office 2000 have reached the end of their support lifecycle, we do not have the enviroment with these earlier versions of Office installed to do test.
    According to the article "Excellent Word 97 Easter Egg!", Office 97 may have a similar Easter Eggs. But I could not reproduce this process and effect in Microsoft 365.
    (Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.)

    > Do you think running later Office versions as the earlier versions would allow me to open them?

    Via searching on the web, I find there was a Trustworthy Computing Initiative in 2002, for some reasons of security, Microsoft formally stopped including Easter eggs in its programs as part of its initiative.
    For more information, please refer to "Why no Easter Eggs?".
    So I do not think you may open them in later Office versions.

    > For example running Access 2016 as 97 in options?

    Based on my knowledge, we cannot run the new version of Office applications (Such as Microsoft 365) in 97 mode. Starting with Access 2013, it’s even no longer possible to directly convert an Access 97 database (.mdb) to the .accdb file format.

    Hope the information could help you.

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