Bizzarre Word-XP crippling under "tweaked" Win-XP

[Robert E Revay]

I have a bad habit of tweaking my system until something doesn't work
<grimace>. I find now that in Word (Office XP), I can not SAVE or
SAVEAS. When I "FILE/Save" or "FILE/SaveAs...", absolutely nothing
discernable happens: no dialog box, no error mesage.

I have uninstalled Office XP and re-installed it -- no difference in
it's behavior.

Other parts of Office XP (Excel, for example) work properly. Also, I
can open the doc in Wordpad, modify it and save it with the exact
filename, (whatever.doc), but in RTF format -- so much for
permissions. I deduce that I have either deleted some essential file
or registry entry -- or disabled a service or set up some policy type
thing that is frustrating my attempts to modify and save a file.

If Microsoft did not bogg down their operating system and applications
with SO MUCH clutter, I wouldn't mess with what they install, Does
anyone have a clue what to do short of a clean install of Windows-XP?

 

[Dude]

If you're not smart enough to backup your registry before
playing with it, then you shouldn't be playing with it.
How do you like your customized "tweaked" system now???

 

[GeneL]

Have you tried a repair of office?

go into Add/Remove Programs and choose office and remove, then choose repair office rather than remove. Any "Tweaks" you may have made might be forfeight, but at least you would have everything back.

--Gene

 

[Robert E Revay]

Thanks for your constructive reply, Gene.

Yes. I tried that first. All it did was to add back the Microsoft
bloat; the problem remained.

Bob

 

[Malke]

Thanks for your constructive reply, Gene.

Yes. I tried that first. All it did was to add back the Microsoft
bloat; the problem remained.

Bob

Gene, I'm sorry that you won't think this is a constructive answer, but
I do think your best bet is to format the drive and clean install
Windows. Then, get Windows set up just the way you like it, all
available upgrades, programs you *always* use, etc. and then image the
drive with something like Norton Ghost or Drive Image. Keep data on a
second partition or hard drive. Then when you mess it up, restoring
from the image is quick and easy. And I don't think you can really
blame MS for your tweaking habits. If you want total control, then come
over to the Dark Side, son and roll your own Linux. Slackware ought to
do it for you. ;-)

Malke

 

[Robert E Revay]

Oh, but I do think it's a constructive reply, Malke.

I realize it's my tweaking that gets me into trouble -- and Microsoft
is not to blame -- their applications are going with the flow:
all-encompassing suites that do everything conceivable automatically.
Still, it is exactly that that explains why someone like I would go to
the trouble -- and it is a LOT of trouble -- to strip out what I don't
want.

I have considered frequently leaving the Wintel fold, but market
forces -- specifically the availability of software -- has made that
prospect look even worse. So I reformat my hard drive and do a clean
install about once a month ot two.

I've tried Win-XP system restore as well as Symantec's CleanSweep.
Both seem to be mindless, poor implementations of your suggestion.
Cleansweep was the last straw. It TRIED to cleverly keep track of what
was being installed, but it so frequently missed what was REALLY
happening, that I nuked it. Maybe I should try the Ghost thing.

Thanks for the suggestion.
-Bob

 

[Malke]

Oh, but I do think it's a constructive reply, Malke.

I realize it's my tweaking that gets me into trouble -- and Microsoft
is not to blame -- their applications are going with the flow:
all-encompassing suites that do everything conceivable automatically.
Still, it is exactly that that explains why someone like I would go to
the trouble -- and it is a LOT of trouble -- to strip out what I don't
want.

I have considered frequently leaving the Wintel fold, but market
forces -- specifically the availability of software -- has made that
prospect look even worse. So I reformat my hard drive and do a clean
install about once a month ot two.

I've tried Win-XP system restore as well as Symantec's CleanSweep.
Both seem to be mindless, poor implementations of your suggestion.
Cleansweep was the last straw. It TRIED to cleverly keep track of what
was being installed, but it so frequently missed what was REALLY
happening, that I nuked it. Maybe I should try the Ghost thing.

Thanks for the suggestion.
-Bob

Sorry that I got your name wrong. Clean Sweep sucks. It has sucked for
years. That comment makes me wonder how well you know Windows - and I
don't mean to insult you, it's just that maybe you could be
implementing what you want in Windows better. As far as Linux goes,
unless you have some particular program in mind that you must use,
there is probably an alternate program in Linux. This is a Windows
newsgroup and I hate operating system trolls of any flavor, so I don't
want to go farther with this, but I will suggest you download a copy of
Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org/) and try it for yourself.

Malke (SUSE 9.0 Pro)

 

[Robert E Revay]

I have solved the problem by getting Office 2003 -- and GUESS WHAT?

Microsoft seems to have actually learned something since they did
Office XP! I was absolutely floored by the fact that the intolerable
bloat is gone -- I'm mean really gone! I had uninstalled the XP
version and braced myself for a new onslaught of startup threads and
meddling with my start menu and .. Not there!

I may actually try Outlook in place of Eudora.

Bob