Windows 7: making Word 2007 default program for .doc files

[steph]

Hey guys,
Whenever I try to open .doc files, it uses "WordPad" (the word processing
program that came with Windows7) to open the files & sometimes it's
unreadable with weird symbols. I used to just right click on the file & do
"open with.." & choose the "Windows Office Word Viewer 2003" for files that
don't look right (weird symbols) in WordPad...

I just bought & installed Office2007 on my computer which is using Windows
7. Now that I have Word 2007, I want to make it the default program for .doc
files so I don't have to manually choose "open with" every time.

I tried doing the Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Set
association

I'm pretty sure this is where I need to do the changing. However when I try
changing the program for .doc files (which is associated with WordPad like I
said), I don't see Word 2007 as an option. When I go to browse, I can't find
the Word 2007 program. I found a winword.exe in the Office 2007 folder, but
it doesn't work properly when I tried opening a document. Any help would be
appreciated!!

 

[Terry Farrell]

When you install Office, it should make Word the default for doc/docx. Try
reregistering Word: from the run command (Winkey+R), type in

winword /r

and press enter. If that doesn't work, it suggests that something is
inhibiting changes to the registry.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

If the /r trick doesn't work, try the following, making sure that the
"Always use..." option listed in step 2 is checked:

1. In Windows Explorer, right-click any .doc file and choose Open With...

2. Tick the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file"
option.

3. If Microsoft Word is listed, click on it, and then click OK.

If Word isn't listed, then click Browse..., find winword.exe, and click on
Open. If you have the 64-bit version of Windows 7, winword.exe is probably
in this folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12, otherwise,
it's probably in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12.