[Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, Word 2010 - fresh installation, not an upgrade. (Not sure if the MS Office is 32 or 64 bit.)]

From within Word itself, the Word Template folder holds no files, just a LiveContent folder. [Same result, whether the filter is 'templates' or 'all word files'.]
I looked at this folder from the Command Prompt, to check that the Normal template wasn't hidden, and got the same result to a DIR /AH command: no Normal.*, only the LiveContent folder.
A complete computer search for Normal.dot, Normal.dotm, Normal.* returns 'no matches'.
Any suggestions?