Railfan Technology > Question concerning the Old Micro Soft Works program

My computer at home did the auto Windows 10 Upgrade while I was away from home. When this happened I found that I could no longer access any of my MS Works files. I know it's an outdated program, and I am by no means computer savy, but I really had no problem with Works. But I can't find my Works install Disc, tho I am sure it wouldn't work anyhow with Windows 10. So, How can I, or is it possible to restore my Works files to the comp I have with Windows 10 installed?  My laptop still has all the files from Works on it, so all is not a total loss, but with out it installed on the desktop, which is the one MS installed Win 10 on, I can not access any files on it.  Is there a way to transfer Works files to something more up-to-date, and if so, what would be the best way/program to do so?  Thanks.  Ben

I'm no computer whiz, but in MS Word (I have v. 2010), there is an option you can select under "open" to "recover text from any file." I just used it to open a *.wps file that I found on my computer (an assignment submitted by a student some years ago). It seems to have recovered the text just fine, although you might lose some special formatting. I don't know if it works with other MS Works files, e.g., opening a spreasheet in Excel, but it's worth investigating. 

colehour Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm no computer whiz, but in MS Word (I have v.
> 2010), there is an option you can select under
> "open" to "recover text from any file." I just
> used it to open a *.wps file that I found on my
> computer (an assignment submitted by a student
> some years ago). It seems to have recovered the
> text just fine, although you might lose some
> special formatting. I don't know if it works with
> other MS Works files, e.g., opening a spreasheet
> in Excel, but it's worth investigating. 

Microsoft Works was discontinued in 2007. It's very possible Microsoft Office from that era (Office 2010) can covert the Works format correctly to Word and Excel files, as there was a relatively large install-base of Works due to OEMs installing the suite instead of Office to target the first time buyers, college students, and budget users. It would have been in Microsoft's best interest to bait them to become Office users. No guarantee this will work for newer versions of Office.

Here's a nice little word I found within 5 minutes of reading this thread: Zamzar. Good luck and don't let others catch the fish for you. :-)
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/16 09:14 by cchan006.

I did find a link that suggested using Google Docs to open the works files. worth a try. 

Try  "open office" a free download.  It opens all "pre word" documents generated in the 90's.  I assume it does the same for spreadsheets etc. 

 

About a year ago, a friend asked me to retrieve his resume on a floppy disk.  No problem as I still have my Windows XP computer account a couple of programs that are no longer available or too expensive to upgrade past XP.  THEN I discovered it was MS Works.  I played around with Office 2010 on that computer and MS Word refused to open it.  I went back to the backup CD installation disk for Office and selected what I thought were good candidates for compatibility.  They didn't work either.  So I Googled it.  I came up with something from Microsoft that's an add-in to Office free for downloading.  That did the trick and I was off to the races!

I never thought about trying Open Office.  To paraphrase the old Post cereal commercial "It'll open ANYTHING!"