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About this lesson
Recognize best practices when running MS Project for the first time.
Lesson versions
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2013, 2019/365.
Exercise files
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Run Microsoft Project for the first time.mpp.mpp223 KB
Quick reference
Run Microsoft Project for the First Time
When you run Microsoft Project for the first time, a dialog may appear asking if you want to migrate settings from a Global.mpt file. Since each version may have different settings, you may run into problems later on.
A best practice is to start Microsoft Project without migrating the Global.MPT file.
Steps
If you a Planning Wizard dialog appears, such as the one shown in the figure, follow these steps:
- Select the Cancel. Done perform an upgrade at this time radio button.
- Select the Don’t tell me about this again checkbox.
- Click the OK button.
Once done, you will no longer receive a prompt to migrate the Global.mpt file.
Login to download- 00:04 To launch Microsoft Project for the first time, go to the Start button,
- 00:08 type Project, and press Enter.
- 00:10 And this will launch Microsoft Project for the first time.
- 00:14 Now you may get a dialog box that shows up, and
- 00:16 I'm going to walk you through that.
- 00:18 But right now what I'm going to do is show you how to pin Microsoft Projects.
- 00:22 So if you get that dialog box, just cancel it, and
- 00:25 then right click down here at the bottom of the screen where you see
- 00:30 Microsoft Project and choose Pin to taskbar.
- 00:34 Now we're going to exit Project by clicking the X icon up at the top right
- 00:39 corner of the screen.
- 00:41 You can see that Project is now down here at the bottom of the screen.
- 00:45 So now we can just simply launch it here rather than having to go to
- 00:49 the Start menu.
- 00:50 If you receive a dialog that looks something like this asking you
- 00:55 to upgrade your global settings, it's because you
- 00:58 installed a newer version of Project over an older version of Project.
- 01:03 You're usually presented with three settings,
- 01:07 one is to upgrade automatically, the other is to upgrade manually,
- 01:12 and the other is to basically do nothing and just start a new.
- 01:16 Now here's my take on this dialogue.
- 01:20 If you upgrade automatically, you could be bringing over old settings
- 01:25 that don't necessarily match to the newer version of Microsoft Project.
- 01:30 Some people have claimed that they would encounter some sort of corruption
- 01:35 in their Project files after having done this.
- 01:38 Another option is to do it manually where you'll have a table where you can copy
- 01:43 over the pertinent settings.
- 01:45 But again, Microsoft Project may have changed those settings and
- 01:49 you might end up with challenges in the future.
- 01:52 So here's what I recommend.
- 01:54 Choose the Cancel, don't perform the upgrade and
- 01:57 choose Do not tell me about this again.
- 02:00 Then go through the settings and
- 02:02 get them configured the way you want in the new version.
- 02:05 I know that that might be a lot of work, but it's a one step process,
- 02:09 you do it once and then you'll be okay moving forward.
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