Help!! Got Windows Vista and '02 Word docs won't show up!

[BaffledVistaUser]

My computer died yesterday so I got a new one. I had the files transferred
from the old one to the new by the Geek Squad. I asked the salesguy if my
Word docs will work on the new computer and he said oh sure, absolutely.

I'm a writer so I have a ton of stuff saved...

Well, I just tried to open some things and they can't open because the Vista
Word won't support the documents. HELP!!!

 

[JoAnn Paules]

They do work. It's not "Vista Word", it's Word 2007 and it does open older
word files. If you are having a problem or getting error messages, then we
need details to help you.

 

[Jay Freedman]

My computer died yesterday so I got a new one. I had the files
transferred from the old one to the new by the Geek Squad. I asked
the salesguy if my Word docs will work on the new computer and he
said oh sure, absolutely.

I'm a writer so I have a ton of stuff saved...

Well, I just tried to open some things and they can't open because
the Vista Word won't support the documents. HELP!!!

If the files were just copied from one computer to the other, then Office
isn't "installed" on the new one. Installation of programs in Windows is
much more than just copying the program's files -- it also makes entries in
the registry (in the case of Office, there are hundreds of them) and in some
cases modifies the behavior of other programs such as Windows Explorer.

Can you open Word itself from the Start menu? If you can, then it is
installed. If not, then you need to insert the installation CD and reinstall
Office.

If Office is installed, but it won't open files from older versions of
Office, then read http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=922849. It probably
won't make a lot of sense to you, but show it to the Geek Squad guy and
insist that they make the registry change for you. If they know what they're
doing (not guaranteed!) it should take only a couple of minutes.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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