64bit Windows & Office - Does Anyone Have A Work Around?

[jnpurdy]

My IT department refuses to put 32Bit office on my HP 64Bit system.  They claim that it is not compatible. 

So, now my question for this community is to find out if anyone has been successful loading ACT Ver 16 on top of Windows and Office 64bit - Windows 8.1 and Office 2013?

[Roy_Laudenslager]

Your IT department is lazy and they don't know what they are talking about. As is often the case they only want to support a specific configuration. The 32-bit Office is compatible with the 64-bit Windows 7. The 64-bit version of Office lacks critical connections required by the ACT! program.

[jnpurdy]

Roy, I totally agree, but my company's standard is Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and I am a rogue user of ACT.  The problem with Microsoft CRM is that it is designed for managers to pull reports and not for sales people to run our territory.

We just upgraded to Dynamics CRM 2013.  Other than the fact that it has a new shell on it and is at least 2 times slower, I haven't found many changes.

What do you or the community think of running a virtualized instance?  The system has Windows 8.1 Pro and Office 2013 Pro. 

I do have a copy of Office 2010 that I could install along with ACT in a virtual slice.  Just not sure of what I would be facing.

Thanks again, Roy, your comments are always appreciated. 

But as Kevin Chieff said, I do hope SwiftPage delivers a 64bit version soon.

[Roy_Laudenslager]

Virtual machines are great. On one of my computers I have three virtual PCs one of which is Windows xp so I can run ACT! 6 in its own environment. You do need to install the operating system along with the applications. I use the VMware virtual software.

[jnpurdy]

I need to get some help with VMware before I attempt to load it.

In the meantime, I hae ACT running in my new system.  I'm trying to set up the ACT eMail client.

First, as long as my company offers OWA, how do I get the ACT eMail client to retrieve mail?

Instead of listing what I did, is it possible to treat OWA as internet mail?  If so, what are the proper steps to set it up.

Many thanks in advance for your help.