Advise

For compatability, I would get another copy of Office 97.
If you can't find one locally, try www.bigclearance.com

I have no experiance with W2K.
However, based on my experiance with Windows XP, I would recomend bypassing 2000 and going straightto XP.
The only caveat would be if you want to upgrade existing hardware. Does it exceed the minimum reguirements.

One point to consider, Microsoft will stop supporting 2000 at least 1 year before they stop supporting XP. So, if you skip over 2000, you will have an extra year or more of support for the OS.

Depending on how many PC's you have, you may want to look into the volume licensing options.

Chas

With Office, you are kind of stuck with buying the latest version (Office XP) from most vendors. You may be able to find some on-line vendors that still have Office 2000 in stock, but I'm pretty sure you won't find Office 97 available anyplace. Office XP shouldn't cause you problems (for the most part) except for possible compatibility issues for those users still using Office 97. Office XP is able to open and modify any documents created previous versions of Office. The only trick will be for the user who has Office XP to save documents in a version compatible with Office 97.

There is one major caveat to this: Access databases. The Access database format is not backward-compatible in any version of Microsoft Office. Once it isconverted to a new version, it is no longer readable by previous versions of Office.

Outlook shouldn't be an issue at all as it is only acting as a User Interface. All email compatibility issues are taken care of in the actual email software (exchange, sendmail, etc.)

As for whther to buy the Standard or Professional version, this depends solely on what Office programs are needed. The main difference is that Professional comes with Microsoft Access while Standard does not.

Server Operating systems: For your servers, Windows 2000 Server is the way to go (There is no XP server yet). Be aware that ther are many more moving parts in Win2K Server than there are in NT4. Much more care must be taken in designing your domain environment. Some domain design mistakes that could be remedied in NT4 are unrecoverable in Win2K without totally starting from scratch. Do lots of homework (especially with Active Directory) and maybe consider taking some classes.
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Upgrading to Office 2000 Premium would be a good choice the suite also has small business applications included
Go to Microsoft web site to compare the Office versions

The operating sytem migration planning should include inventory of the Equipment and type of hardware that is currently installed on the systems,if over two years old then I would consider migrating to W2K since hardware would be more compatible and drivers readily available.

Buy Office XP and then install Office 97 (from an old CD you already have on hand). I believe this is allowable by the MS licensing rules, and it will do two things - allow you to remain backward compatible with current systems, but also be ready to upgrade to the newest version of software when you get to that point. As far as upgrading your OS, you should go to XP Pro, not 2000, since 2000 is already obsoleted by XP Pro. Obviously, assuming you are on a network that uses the domain model, you do NOT want XP Home - this version is not compatible with domain networking.

Are you running Microsoft Mail? If you are, Office XP is going to hastle you about Microsoft Mail. But, dont worry. We are running it here without any problems. Actually, during the install, you will STILL need to install Office 97, setup your mail,then install Office XP over it.
As far is OS is concerned, I can not answer you on that. We run NT servers with 95, 98, and NT clients.
I hope this helps.

Are you running Microsoft Mail? If you are, Office XP is going to hastle you about Microsoft Mail. But, dont worry. We are running it here without any problems. Actually, during the install, you will STILL need to install Office 97, setup your mail,then install Office XP over it.
As far is OS is concerned, I can not answer you on that. We run NT servers with 95, 98, and NT clients.
I hope this helps.

I am an Enterprise admin for a 30,000+ computer domain. I inspite of the additional bells and whistles in XP and the additional year of support, I'd still recommend W2K Pro until the vast security concerns have been hammered out of XP. W2K Pro is much more secure at present than is XP Pro.

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