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That's not backward compatibility then - those are the systems it was made for (Windows 7 would then have been made backwards compatible for Office 2003).

It's backward compatibility if Word 2003 runs on the later Windows versions - like Windows 10 and 11. I don't know the answer to that, but I'm sure someone here does.

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Oh, I wasn't responding to the first point, of course Microsoft takes backward compatibility seriously.

Though it's possible to mix and match so the OS backwards compatibility isn't the full story.

i.e. a launch copy of Word 2003 works on later OS updates, yet the final patch version of Word 2003 also works on a 2009 launch copy of 7.

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