corrupt data key in registry

[gardener]

I'm using Word 2007 home and student edition on Windows Vista home
premium.

Last Wednesday, May 14, I had the program open when microsoft update
did an automatic update and rebooted my computer. Word has not worked
properly since.

At first it froze whenever I tried to hit save or save as.

I deleted the normal.dot and that fixed that problem, but now it
freezes whenever I try to exit the program.

There is nothing in the Startup folder. I think I probably have a
corrupt datakey in the registry.

I tried the procedure suggested in this forum:

Delete the Word DataKey. Run Regedit and then navigate to the DataKey
and
delete it.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\version number\Word\Data


--
Terry Farrell - MSWord MVP

But there were actually three items in that data folder: One said
"default" and was "undefined." The other two were called "system" and
"toolbars" and there was a long string of numbers after each one. I
wasn't sure which of these to delete and I have heard that messing
with the registry can really mess up your computer, so I didn't dare
hit that delete key! Can anyone advise me which, if any, of these to
delete?

Thanks!

 

[Jay Freedman]

I'm using Word 2007 home and student edition on Windows Vista home
premium.

Last Wednesday, May 14, I had the program open when microsoft update
did an automatic update and rebooted my computer. Word has not worked
properly since.

At first it froze whenever I tried to hit save or save as.

I deleted the normal.dot and that fixed that problem, but now it
freezes whenever I try to exit the program.

There is nothing in the Startup folder. I think I probably have a
corrupt datakey in the registry.

I tried the procedure suggested in this forum:

Delete the Word DataKey. Run Regedit and then navigate to the DataKey
and
delete it.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\version number\Word\Data


--
Terry Farrell - MSWord MVP

But there were actually three items in that data folder: One said
"default" and was "undefined." The other two were called "system" and
"toolbars" and there was a long string of numbers after each one. I
wasn't sure which of these to delete and I have heard that messing
with the registry can really mess up your computer, so I didn't dare
hit that delete key! Can anyone advise me which, if any, of these to
delete?

Thanks!

There should be a Settings entry (not System), and that's the one that's
possibly corrupt.

You cannot "really mess up your computer" by deleting any of these or, in fact,
by deleting the entire Data key. The next time you start Word, it will create a
factory-fresh copy from its internal defaults.

The article http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/DataKeySettings.htm
describes what's stored there, and how to save your current customizations so
you can restore them after rebuilding the registry entries.

 

[gardener]

Thanks very much for your help. I deleted the settings key and now the
program works as it should.