nothing is working with Word

[Beccy Hosoda]

I've spent the last several days reading through previous posts and trying
everything that has been suggested-all to no avail. I've located and
renamed Normal.dot; I've tried all the suggestions on the mvps link that has
been posted. The only route I haven't tried is uninstalling the Works
Add-In. When I go to Add/Remove and click to remove, it seems to try, then
I get two error messages: the first says "setup is unable to register tasks"
and after clicking "okay" (my only option), the second message says "fatal
error during installation." I've tried uninstalling with the CD rather than
through Add/Remove, but that doesn't work either. I've also tried to
install over what's already there hoping it will put in whatever is missing.
I would LOVE any suggestions!

Thanks,
Beccy

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

What version of Word is this? What error message do you get when you try to
start Word?

 

[Beccy Hosoda]

Herb,
It's Word 2000. I am able to open it with "winword.exe /a" but when I try
to open it normally, a blank document appears for a nanosecond, then Word
closes - so I'm not getting an error message. However, I was finally able
to get rid of the Add-In (I think!). I found another post that led me to a
Windows something Installer Cleaner something. Anyway, I downloaded it from
Microsoft and the Add-In no longer appears in my Add/Remove. Word used to
work and one day I couldn't close a document - not even with Ctrl/Alt/Del.
After waiting about 10 minutes, I just turned off the computer at the surge
protector and when I rebooted, Word has had a mind of its own ever since.

Beccy

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

If you've renamed Normal.dot, but Word works using the /a switch, then I can
think of several possibilities:

1. You have multiple Normal.dot files, and you might not be renaming the one
Word is actually loading. Check in the locations specified in Tools -
Options - File Locations - User Templates and in Workgroup Templates.

2. Another add-in you aren't seeing is causing the problem. Find Word's
Startup folder (the default location is shown in Tools - Options - File
Locations - Startup.

3. There is registry corruption. A frequent culprit is Word's data key. Is
this something you've pursued yet?