Run Microsoft Project for the First Time

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About this lesson

Recognize best practices when running MS Project for the first time.

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Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2013, 2019/365.

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Run Microsoft Project for the first time.mpp.mpp
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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:

  1. Select the Cancel. Done perform an upgrade at this time radio button.
  2. Select the Don’t tell me about this again checkbox.
  3. Click the OK button.

Once done, you will no longer receive a prompt to migrate the Global.mpt file.

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  • 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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