121. Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack (for rendering office attachments) (Desktop Experience must be enabled for Server 2008 and 2012)

In order to convert MS-Word 2003 documents, the user must have the Office Compatibility Pack installed. This allows the conversion of Microsoft Office file types without the need to have Office suite installed, When running this on Windows Server though, the application crashes. The following is logged to the Event Viewer:

Faulting application Wordconv.exe, version 12.0.6500.5000, 
time stamp 0x49a6d394, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, 
time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00000000, 
process id 0x1bac, application start time 0x01cdf509762f5a4b.

In order to resolve this issue, you must install the 'Desktop Experience' Feature from the Server Manager console.

📘 Installing Desktop Experience for SERVER 2008

1. Click Start and select Server Manager

2. When the Server Manager window appears, go to the left pane and select Features.

3. On the right, click the Add Features link.

4. Check the Desktop Experience checkbox

5. Click Next.

6. Click Install

7. When the installation is complete, Windows will notify you that you must restart your server to complete the process.

📘. Installing Desktop Experience for SERVER 2012

1. Open Server Manager from the Start screen or the icon on the desktop taskbar.

2. In Server Manager Dashboard, click Add roles and features under Welcome to Server Manager.

3. In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, click Server Selection in the left pane.

4. Now click Features in the left pane.

5. Scroll down the list of features and expand User Interfaces and Infrastructure.

6. Check Desktop Experience.