saving / transferring old Works files from Vista

[nich_steve]

I am not very computer savvy. I have an old computer with Vista Home Premium with no internet I have been able to continue to use it but am afraid that it is going to crash and I will lose some important files. I have tried sending these to a thumb drive but they only open showing a gibberish code or whatever, not readable. Can someone help me figure out how to be able to save them in a usable fashion? Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[lmacri]

Hi nich_steve:

Could you clarify what you're trying to do? Do you mean that you have old Microsoft Works .wps and/or .xlr files on a removable USB stick and can't open them on your Vista SP2 computer, or are you trying to open them on a different computer? If Microsoft Works or Microsoft Office is installed on your Vista SP2 let us know the full product name shown in Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features (e.g., Microsoft Office 2003 Professional SP3, Microsoft Works 9, etc.).

If Microsoft Works is installed on your Vista SP2 machine, plug your USB stick in to your Vista machine and browse to one of your .wps files in File Explorer, right-click the .wps file, choose "Open With" from the pop-up context menu, and choose Microsoft Works. Does this allow you to correctly view the contents of that .wps file?

If that suggestion doesn't help please read the article How to Open Microsoft Works Files in Word for some background information on Microsoft Works .wps files.

ASIDE: I also noticed you've marked your topic as Solved. You might want to change your topic back to Unsolved for now so other users know you still require assistance.

 

[nich_steve]

Hi nich_steve:

Could you clarify what you're trying to do? Do you mean that you have old Microsoft Works .wps and/or .xlr files on a removable USB stick and can't open them on your Vista SP2 computer, or are you trying to open them on a different computer? If Microsoft Works or Microsoft Office is installed on your Vista SP2 let us know the full product name shown in Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features (e.g., Microsoft Office 2003 Professional SP3, Microsoft Works 9, etc.).

If Microsoft Works is installed on your Vista SP2 machine, plug your USB stick in to your Vista machine and browse to one of your .wps files in File Explorer, right-click the .wps file, choose "Open With" from the pop-up context menu, and choose Microsoft Works. Does this allow you to correctly view the contents of that .wps fil

If that suggestion doesn't help please read the article How to Open Microsoft Works Files in Word for some background information on Microsoft Works .wps files.

ASIDE: I also noticed you've marked your topic as Solved. You might want to change your topic back to Unsolved for now so other users know you still require assistance.

Thanks for your attempt to help. As I said, I am not very computer savvy. I am a senior citizen without any formal computer training and not a lot of experience. I could understand little of what you said in your reply. I want to save some old files from that old computer to a thumb drive so I can access them on a newer computer / operating system. I have some old "text"(?) files that were created on that Vista. They, I believe, are in Microsoft Works program. I would also like to save some old photos saved on that computer. I think I did manage to save a spreadsheet file in good shape. I tried to save those files individually with no success. As I said, when I opened them all I had was some sort of code gibberish. When I tried opening them on a newer laptop, the spreadsheet opened but the others claimed that they could not be opened by the programs available on this computer.

I will take a look to see if I can find that "full product name" that you requested. I'll also try to follow your other instructions to see where that goes for me. Thanks again.

 

[nich_steve]

Okay As best I can tell, the full name is Microsoft Works. It does not show any number or version designation. If it helps to know, this was installed on the old Vista computer on 4/12/2011 and is 269 MB.

When I followed your instructions to try to open the files I found that the recommended program was WordPad. That may be why I'm having the problem. When I go in to view my files or to create a new document, it is in Microsoft Works Word Processor. I even tried creating a new document, saving it to the thumb drive and still only got the gibberish when I opened it there.

 

[lmacri]

I want to save some old files from that old computer to a thumb drive so I can access them on a newer computer / operating system.

Hi nich_steve:

Thanks for that additional information.

What is the Windows operating system on the newer computer [if you don't know, open a run dialog box (Windows key + R) and enter winver], and what program (e.g., Microsoft Office 2019, LibreOffice v24.8, etc.) do you use on that newer computer to open and create documents and spreadsheets? Again, your installed programs on the newer computer should be listed at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features.

I suspect it's simply a matter of converting your old .wps and/or .xlr files on your removable USB stick that were created by Microsoft Works to a file format that is compatible with the software on your newer computer (e.g., from .wps to .doc or.docx; from .xlr to .xls or.xlsx). There are free online conversion tools that can do this (e.g., like Zamzar's WPS Converter and XLR Converter) but we need to know what program you will be using on your newer computer to open documents and spreadsheets so we know what file format your .wps and/or .xlr files need to be converted to.

 

[wither 3]

What is the format of the photo files? For example- .jpg, .jpeg, .png, etc. Are you using Copy then Save when transferring them to the thumbdrive. Edit: I'm a senior bonehead- should have said Copy and Paste.
If you double click on one, does it open.

 

[lmacri]

... what program (e.g., Microsoft Office 2019, LibreOffice v24.8, etc.) do you use on that newer computer to open and create documents and spreadsheets?

Hi nich_steve:

Further to my previous post, here's some additional information about Microsoft Works, just in case you don't have a modern Office suite like Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office or the free LibreOffice installed on your new computer.

There is a Lenovo support page titled What is Microsoft Works? that explains the history of this software and notes that Microsoft Works was discontinued in 2007. That support article also claims that you might still be able to install and run Microsoft Works on a computer with a newer operating system (although this is not an ideal solution since this software hasn't received any security patches since 2007). From that Lenovo article:

Is Microsoft Works compatible with Windows 10?

Microsoft Works is not officially supported on Windows 10. However, some users have reported success in running older versions of Microsoft Works on Windows 10 by using compatibility mode or virtualization techniques.

However, installation instructions I found for Win 10 / Win 11 on the MiniTool site at Microsoft Works Free Download & Use Guide for Windows 10/11 are not straightforward and would require you to mount a Works 9 ISO file on your newer computer, run the setup.exe file to install, and then configure Works 9 (MSWorks.exe) to run in Compatibility Mode.

NOTE: The MakeUseOf article How to Install Microsoft Works on Windows 10 or 11 has similar instructions but explains how to configure the desktop shortcut for Microsoft Works to launch this program in Compatibility Mode after the program is installed. I installed an old program called Microsoft Money (discontinued in 2010, compatible with Win XP, Vista and Win 7 SP1) on my Windows 10 computer and configured the desktop shortcut to run Microsoft Money in Windows 7 compatibility mode so this old software runs correctly on my Windows 10 computer when launched from that desktop shortcut.

 

[nich_steve]

I appreciate all the information and for your patience with me. This is all "over my head" with my limited knowledge of computers. Much of what you have told me just seems like a foreign language. I think I will just see if there is a computer shop in my area that might be able to help me. Thank you all.

 

[wither 3]

Understand but, can you reply to my comment in #6?

 

[nich_steve]

What is the format of the photo files? For example- .jpg, .jpeg, .png, etc. Are you using Copy then Save when transferring them to the thumbdrive. Edit: I'm a senior bonehead- should have said Copy and Paste.
If you double click on one, does it open.

Sorry I did not reply directly. I couldn't figure out how to do that until I got the email. I appreciate all the willingness to help but am having a terrible time figuring it all out. I will just try to find a computer shop in my area to see it they can do it for me. Thanks.

 

[wither 3]

Okay. Please come back and let us know how things turn out.