You could be running into some potential security issues between Windows XP
and Excel 97. However, the issues that I noticed primarily took place on
Excel 97 and Windows 2000 for when we upgraded from Windows NT 4.0a to
Windows 2000 and was still using Excel 97. Users were set as Standard
users, which then when a such user attempted to open up an Excel file,
though normally was for files that has VBA code in it, but there were
instances of files that didn't have any VBA code in it at all that also got
the issue, they got an error message that they didn't have the permissions.
That's cause Excel was attempting to record something to within the Registry
file of the system and for standard users of the system, that is blocked out
by way of Windows permissions. The file then was not permitted to be
openned.

The only work around that we had to resolve this was for a power user or
above of the system as setup within Windows 2000 or later to open up the
Excel file and allow Excel to make the adjustments into the registry file.
This was a one time deal as once this was done, we no longer on that system
ran into the issue. However, given this is on a system by system basis, you
could run into this issue on every single system, and have to do the work
around on each and every single one of those systems.

Ronald Dodge
Master MOUS 2000
"suncityart" wrote in message
...
i set up office 97 small business ed. on xp. got msg install made changes
to
some xp files and to re-install xp. did so. i am able to use word,however,
xcel does not work. tried the compatibilty wizard in xp to no avail. is
there
a fix that microsoft has out there or is the solution to buy a new version
of
office?