MS Office for PowerPC Windows NT Found!
Date:
Mon, 18 Aug 2025 15:15:38 GMT
Description:
You can now run Windows NT (with Office) on a Nintendo Wii & an original
iMac. Seriously. That's a real thing.
FULL STORY ======================================================================
There are two things that bring me an unreasonable amount of joy:
The discovery of long-lost software.
Running software on hardware it was never intended to run on.
This story has both. I am positively giddy. Microsoft Office for PowerPC
It is a well known fact that Windows NT was developed (and, in some cases, released) for multiple CPU architectures beyond the common x86 including MIPS, DEC Alpa, and PowerPC.
In addition to Windows NT, Microsoft developed and released versions of
Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) for those hardware platforms. Not much good having the operating system for a particular CPU if you dont have some software to run on it, right?
Weve had public archives of Microsoft Office for both MIPS and Alpha CPUs for quite some time but the PowerPC version of Office has, for whatever reason, remained elusive.
Until this week, when Antoni Sawicki got his hands on the long-lost Office
for PPC .
Antoni was alerted to an eBay listing of a boxed copy of MS Office 6.0. A
box which, intriguingly, listed all four of the released Windows NT CPU architectures.
As Antoni said, Since it clearly said PowerPC on the box I got it and here it is:
Check out that screenshot. Windows NT 4.0, running on a PPC 604 processor (with 32 MB of RAM) running a native version of Microsoft Word 6.0.
The archive for the PowerPC version of Office is now hosted at VirtuallyFun.com . A major win for computer history preservation.
Now, buckle up, Buttercup. Because it gets weirder. And more awesome. Windows NT For Wii & PowerMac
The archiving of historical software is, without question, important. But being able to actually run that software on easily obtainable hardware allows people to experience that part of computer history.
And, thanks to one developer, you can run Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 on Nintendo GameCube, Wii, & WiiU as well as PPC Macintoshes like the original iMac and iBook .
Thats right. Apples original, clamshell, bondi blue G3 iBook can run Windows NT 4.0 .
Not emulated. Native. On bare metal.
In theory, it should be able to run the PowerPC native version of Office 6.0 as well. Something I will need to be testing, for myself, very soon.
Now, you may be asking, Why would I install Windows NT and Office on a Nintendo Wii?
And, while there are many valid reasons for undertaking such an endeavor including that whole experiencing computer history first hand thing we talked about there is one purpose for running MS Word on a GameCube that eclipses all others:
Because we can.
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Link to news story:
https://lunduke.substack.com/p/ms-office-for-powerpc-windows-nt
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