Word Won't Open with File Double-click if Word not open

[Paul Calcagno]

I'm running Vista Home Premium SP2 on an Acer desktop system with 2 gigs of
Ram and running Office 2007. My primary internet browser is Firefox.

For the past few months I can no longer double click on a Word file (not
matter where it's stored or what it is) unless I first open up Word itself.
I get an error message (see below).
When I first purchased and download Office 2007 in 2006 there was no problem
opening up Word files with a double click and it's been that way up until a
few months ago. Opening Excel files has always and now works just fine.

Here's the error message: "Windows cannot find the file C:\Users\Paul
Calcagno\App Data\local\Microsoft\filename. Make sure you typed the name
correctly, and then try again". Doesn't matter what `filename' is.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what I should be doing to stop this.
Perhaps some MS Update for Office has caused this issue. Thanks so much in
advance for your help........................Paul C.

 

[Jay Freedman]

This may help:
http://www.gmayor.com/Document_Not_Found.htm

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Hi Jay. I looked into the details of the doc link where it specifies to
make one registry entry change (see the Registry Lines I've attached
below):

===================================================================================
What follows are the directions obtained by opening the link supplied by Jay
Freedman:

In some situations, the above (selecting what program to use to open Word
files) will not fix the problem, which is attributable to a registry entry
associated with the particular document type. Should that occur:

From the Windows Start Menu > Run command, type Regedit to open the registry
editor.

Let's consider the two most likely document types - Word document (doc) and
Word 2007 document (docx) and the relevant registry entries which are:

Word 97-2003 doc format

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\shell\Open

Word 2007 docx format

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open

In both cases the ddexec sub key will have a value of

[REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]

and the command sub key will have a value of

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde %1

It is the %1 at the end of the command sub key that is the problem. Either
edit the key to remove the 1% or surround it with quotes thus

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

or

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde "%1"

I just checked all this out and determined that my registry command lines
are correct (there's no `%1' at the end of the strings) so that's not the
problem.

Thanks anyway for that suggestion. Got any other
ideas?....................Paul C.
====================================================================================

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Jay, in that link you sent me (see a few lines down in this
post-http://www.gmayor.com/Document_Not_Found.htm) ), there's a fix for this
problem that concerns itself with re-registering my Office 2007 product. Is
this something that's safe to do or is it going to somehow trash all my Word
docs?...............Paul C.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Yes, it's safe. In any case, it won't touch your documents at all.
What it should do is write into the registry all the same entries that
the original installation wrote, so if some of them are messed up it
should fix that.

It's still possble that the problem isn't in the registry; we've heard
(although I've never experienced it personally) that some third-party
software such as antivirus programs can cause similar problems.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Terry Farrell]

If you have NAV or Kaspersky (possibly other AVs), try completely
uninstalling it and test to see if that resolves the problem. The few
reports - yet to be full supported - suggest that disabling the AV does not
work: it is actually necessary to uninstall them.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Ok, Jay thanks for the comments about re-registering my Office 2007. I'll
try that and see if it helps my Word opening problem.............Paul C.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Thanks, Terry for your suggestions about un-installing my AV program.

I 'm currently using CA Associates from Road Runner. I've been using that
Security Suite for 5 years now and I think it's great. I've never had any
spyware or virus affect this computer in the 5 years I've had it. My Word
opening issue only started a few months ago. Of course CA program updates
and new virus definitions could still be part of the problem I'm having work
opening Word files with a double click.

Paul C.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Jay, is the re-registering process going to wipe out the pluses I've
obtained by loading Windows Update's for Office 2007 over the past few
years?

Paul C.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No. All reregistering does is reestablish Word's "ownership" of certain file
associations (.doc, .dot, .docx, .dotx, .dotm, etc.) in the Windows
Registry.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Thanks Suzanne for the clarification...........Paul C.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You're welcome. I've learned that most people (understandably) associate
"registering" with something they do online when they first install a
program, not with changing settings in the Registry.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Ok, so I tried re-registering my Word 2007 software and that seemed to work
fine. Not sure if I need to do a restart before the re-registation takes
effect, but without it, opening Word files with a double click gives the
same error and the only way I can open Word files is to first open a blank
Word page.

Got any other ideas.............Paul C.

 

[Terry Farrell]

What AV are you using?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You do need to restart Windows, I think, for the new Registry settings to
take effect.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Terry, I use California Associates (CA) Security Suite offered by Road
Runner. I've had it for 4 years and my Word files used to open up with a
double click. Someone suggested completely uninstalling CA to see if this
affects how Word files are open but this is a very inconvenient thing to
have to so since re-installing it requires a complete AV and Anti-spyware
scan which takes almost 2 hours to run on my system.

 

[Paul Calcagno]

Well restarting didn't work. Double clicking on a Word file still generates
and error message that a file can't be found. Well, not really true. After
I did the restart, I was able to open the file correctly with a double click
but the next time I tried it again it reverted back to generating an error
message.

Got any other ideas?.............Paul C.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Sounds more and more like a security issue with your AV. Check with CA to
see if they have any information on this problem.

Terry

 

[Craig Faustus Buck]

I have the same problem. If I click on a Word docx shortcut it tells me it
can't find the file. But when I click on the same shortcut a second time, it
works fine. Drives me nuts. I'm using Kaspersky Internet Security for my
antivirus.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Kaspersky is a known problem. Try their support site to find out how to
disable their office plug-in.

Terry