Have you tried both looking at the compatibility settings for winword.exe and deleting the registry entries mentioned in the KB article?

Have you tried repairing Office?



What happens if you start Word in Safe mode? To start in Safe mode: Exit Word if it is running. Hold the Windows logo key as you press R; in the Run dialog box, type winword /safe and press Enter.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks for youre additional suggestions. Last night I found an obscure section of the Microsoft Help Area (they aren't actively supporting Office 2007 any more). There were 6-7 more highly complicated registry "diddling" options provided. I'm going try them all.

I STILL can't understand WHY my Office 2007 worked with no problems for years and all of a sudden started this mess.

I would probably bite the bullet and upgrade .... but look at all the people with Office 2013 that are having the same problem.

MICROSOFT !!!!!!! ARE YOU OUT THERE ?????

PLEASE FIX THIS !!!!

An ordinary Windows Update would be great ... Or one of your "Mr. Fixit" programs could specifically address the problem !!!

Note that this forum isn't hosted by Microsoft. At the bottom of this page it says: "MSOfficeForums.com is not affiliated with Microsoft."

Have you tried repairing Office? (It isn't clear from your response.)

Starting in Safe mode is another troubleshooting step that gives valuable information, because it temporarily reverts to factory default settings and prevents potentially problematic add-ins from loading into memory.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I have reinstalled using the windows control pannel AND manually. I have started in Safe Mode and I have tried a dozen different ways of registry editing. Nothing working.
It's not that WORD 2007 doesn't work .... I just cannot double click to open Word files directly from the desktop or Explor

The other odd thing is that a as Word is not on the list of programs to select from on the Default Program screen??
But, it is available if I need to select a program for a specific file type .... It just doesn't work!!

Do yo have any other suggestions?
Do you have an opinion on Office 2013?
I'm wondering if I totally removed Office 2007 and installed 2013 if things would get fixed???

In the Default Programs window, use the Browse button to explicitly choose Word 2007. Does that help?

Other things to try:

Is there a trial version of Office 2010 or 2013 installed on the same machine (look in the Programs and Features applet in Control Panel)? In that case, uninstall it.

Try running Word with the /r swith. In the Run dialog box, type winword /r and press Enter. See what happens after the (re-)configuration has completed.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional