Getting openoffice for my 85 year old mother

[ScottD]

Okay-stupid question #1

She is running vista home basic-does she have to have microsoft office in order to use openoffice?

[jrkrideau]

[keme]

I guess "stupid" question #2 is how to install.

First, be sure to download from the official site, http://www.openoffice.org/.

Double clicking the downloaded file will start a process to install the software smoothly on most platforms/setups. If it doesn't, the most common causes have to do with security settings in Windows. Workaround follows:

If you have some Norton or McAfee security application that was preinstalled from the factory, right click the application icon on the system tray, and select to disable "active protection" or "on demand scanning". (It's wise to disconnect from the internet before you do that.) Temporarily disabling for 15 minutes should be sufficient, if that's an option. Although I haven't experienced it, other security apps may cause similar trouble.

Locate the unpacked installer files. They should be in a folder on the desktop, unless you specified a different location when first attempting to install. Right click the "setup" executable and selct to "run as administrator". Follow the guidance from the installer. Note that you won't be able to immediately register the software if you disconnected from the internet. Registering will have no impact on software functionality, so you can safely select "I do not want to register".

If there was no "temporary disable" option for the security software, you'll need to re-enable it manually, either from the system tray icon or the "All programs" menu. All else failing, a reboot should restart protection tools.