ARCHIVED: Using Windows 95, why do I get a "share.exe" error message when installing or using certain programs?

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Some older programs which were written for Windows 3.1 required that a program called share.exe be loaded into memory before they would run. This includes some of the setup programs for older versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Microsoft Office. Share.exe served to lock files that were open, preventing other programs from opening the same file. This causes "share.exe" errors.

If you are getting a "share.exe" error, you should upgrade to the Windows 95 version of the software rather than using the fix below.

Windows 95 uses a different method for locking files, using a file called vshare.386. The first release of Windows 95 included a share.exe file for the sake of compatibility with these older programs, but the newer OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) did not.

Microsoft suggests that you can fool some of these older programs by creating a zero-length (i.e., empty) file called share.exe in the root of the C: drive and inserting the word "share.exe" (do not include quotation marks) into your autoexec.bat file.

To create a dummy share.exe file:

  1. From the Start menu, select Run.... In the window that opens, type notepad, then click OK.
  2. In the Notepad window, select File, then Save As.
  3. In the "Save in:" box, select the C: drive. Make sure you are in the root folder (i.e., the "bottom level" of the C: drive. It should say "Drive c (C:)" ).
  4. In the "Filename" box, type share.exe, then click OK.

To edit your autoexec.bat file:

  1. From the Start menu, select Run.... In the window that opens, type notepad C:\autoexec.bat, the click OK.
  2. In the Notepad window, go to the bottom of the file and add a new line that reads: 
      rem start.exe
  3. From the File menu, select Save.

For more information, see article 161619 in Microsoft's knowledge base.

This is document aglc in the Knowledge Base.
Last modified on 2018-01-18 12:12:38.