VS2008 Office 2003 target build where Office 2007 only installed

[dtjudd]

My old computer died with XP 32-bit Office 2003 installed where I have created a VS2008 C# application targeting Outlook and Excel 2003 and 2007. Because the old computer had Office 2003 installed, the application worked automatically for both Office 2003 and 2007 applications (Outlook and Excel) for both XP and Vista because it referenced Office 11 and Net2. (The VS2008 application uses clickonce install.)

My new PC is Vista 64 with Office 2007 only installed. When I opened the project the first time, VS2008 wanted me to update the references to Office 12 before I could compile, and wanted Net 3.5. Now when I build the application and it is installed on an XP PC with Office 2003, it no longer works for Office 2003. (It says it wants to VBIDE 12.) I have had them update Net 3.5 on the XP machine with no success.

How can I get the project to target 2003 and 2007 for install when I just have Office 2007 installed? I have looked at downloading the PIA's for Office 2003 for the build machine, but they won't install without Office 2003 present-- something I don't want to do.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Gary Frieder]

Hopefully someone will be able to suggest a technical solution, but in the absence of that, do you have any possible option to get hold of an inexpensive but still functioning used PC with Windows XP? - you could re-install your copies of Office 2003 and VS2008 and get back to the environment that previously worked.

[HansV]

Welcome to the Lounge!

In general, one should develop applications using the oldest version of the software involved that you want to support. References to object libraries are usually resolved automatically if you run the compiled application in a newer version, but not if you run it in an older version than the one used for development. So you should use a PC with Office 2003...