On Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:47:36 -0500, "Jay Freedman"
wrote:

Sesquipedalian Sam wrote:
On Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:53:10 -0000, "Terry Farrell"
wrote:

See
http://blogs.technet.com/wordonenote...6-0-files.aspx

This article asks me to make a Registry change. I'd really rather not
do that. Is there any other fix?

This article says it may be caused by a security update. I suggest
MSFT needs to send out another update to fix the update. And then
actually do a little testing BEFORE they ship the updates. This is the
second time in a year or so that an update broke something that I know
of.

The error only seems to happen when I open a .doc document. I'm
running Office 2007.

Sam, did you read the KnowledgeBase article linked from that page? This
isn't an error, it's deliberate; Microsoft wants to prevent you from using
the old WordPad converter because it isn't secure. The registry change is
intended for administrators who consider using the converter more important
than closing the security hole, at least temporarily. Also, because it's a
deliberate change, there is never going to be "another fix" for the security
update.

But your problem is a bit different from what the articles describe. You're
trying to open a .doc file in Word 2007, which should have nothing to do
with WordPad or the old converter. What's happened is that Windows has
associated the .doc extension with WordPad instead of Word. If the security
patch hadn't been applied, the document would have opened in WordPad (which
can also read the .doc format), and you would have been complaining about
that instead. ;-)

Run the winword /r command as described in
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErr...gisterWord.htm and see if that
fixes the problem.

PS: If this is "deliberate", then the left hand doesn't know what
right hand is doing. When the error pops up, there's a help button,
which says nothing about security or Notepad or anything else useful:

This message can appear if:

* The converter was not properly registered.

* The converter was inadvertently deleted without removing the
registry information.

* The converter support files are corrupt.

* The converter installation was removed and the uninstall tool did
not finish clearing the registry settings.

* The hard disk is damaged where the converter files were stored.

Usually, reinstalling the converter will overcome this problem. If the
converter reports that it is already installed, first uninstall it so
that the setup program can remove the files and registry settings.

If removing and reinstalling the converter is not successful, there
may be a problem with a resource on the computer (for example, an
executable file that is needed to properly register the converters on
the computer has failed or stopped running). In this case, it is best
to turn off the computer and start over.



I particularly like the last suggestion. I would only change it to
"turn the computer off and throw it out the window".