Toby--
I think you'll be fine, and won't have that duplicate set of files that
concerns you and I understand your space concern. When you install on both
XP and Vista, accept the default location for the install. Normally this
would be the Programs file folder on the *drive/OS that you decide to
install to first.* You have to choose one or the other. It would have been
C:\Program Files for the common program folders and files to both Vista and
XP's install but since I installed on Vista first, it is E:\Program
Files\Microsoft Office\Office 12. All of these are not in C:\Program Files
because I installed on E:\ (Vista) first. Office always has,and always
will, insist on putting a few files on the drive with a lone Windows even
when you only have XP on the box and elect to put Office on another drive
for space considerations.
Always be careful when installing Office on systems with limited free drive
space because Office is going to want free space to extract and work with
temporary files.Even if you have plenty of room for what Office will tell
you is the real estate needed, you could have the setup balk if you don't
have enough free space--the extra working space needed to install.
I have XP and Vista on a dual boot on this box. I installed Office 2007 on
Vista and then installed it on XP running it from the same setup but while I
was in each boot. All my Office 2007 files and folders are on the Vista
Drive in E:\Program Files\Microsoft Office with the exception of a
relatively few files that will always install on different parts of C:\ from
Office--once you install Office from the XP drive. I suspect that is
because I installed Office 2007 on my Vista boot *first* because I rarely go
to the XP boot and can access the XP desktop from the Vista desktop.
The Registry keys for each respective install are located in the respective
registries as Mark said.
I used to have Office 2003 and Office 2007 on both boots, parking Office
2007 in easily when it asked me if I wanted to save the old Office--the only
caveat there being of course that if you want to use Outlook 2007 (and I
did) you need to uninstall Outlook 2003 first because two Outlooks won't
coexist on the same OS. I uninstalled Office 2003 on both XP and Vista
because I decided to focus on Office 2007 after I was sure that what I'd be
doing wasn't running into problems on Vista. There are of course, a number
of reported bugs in Office 2007 on or off Vista but not in the everyday
situations where I've been using Word, and Outlook as my two frequently used
apps.
You can elect to keep files that will aid with the uninstall of Office
always during the Office setup, and I would encourage you to do that because
it will be more difficult to uninstall. Also when you uninstall Office, I
would use the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301/
to make sure there are no damaged files that could get in the way of your
unisntall or reinstall. Office leaves some reg entries and files when you
uninstall to prepare for the next installation.
CH
