Somewhat simpler is Start > Run: Winword.exe /r
Dante Gagne said:
What's happened on your machine, is at one time, Windows didn't know how
to open .DOC files (Word Documents), and when that happens, it brings up a
dialog asking "What should I use to open this?"
If you seleceted "Paint", and told it "Always use this file type", Windows
will think that anything with a .DOC extension is supposed to go to Paint,
start paint, hand it the doc file, and paint won't know what to do with it.
I'm running on WindowsXP, and I'm an administrator on my laptop, and these
steps work for me. If you've on XP, but not an admin, I don't know if this
will work, but it's worth a try.
Bring up "My Computer" from the start bar. (Actually, ANY explorer window
will do it, but My Computer will do it fine)
In the menu bar, find Tools, and select "Folder Options..."
A dialog will come up, and one of the tabs is "File Types". Click on that tab.
Now you'll see a long list with all the extensions that your copy of
Windows recognizes. Scroll through the list until you find DOC. What will
probably show up is that the type is something like a "Paint File".
Highlight the rwo, and in the bottom area, click "Change".
Now, you'll have the option to say what program you want to use, whenever
you want to interact with a Word Document. Find Microsoft Word (Or Wordpad,
if you prefer), and select it.
This will re-associate .doc with Word, and from that point on, any time
you interact with a .doc file (I.e. double click from explorer, download
from a web page, etc...) it will launch it in Word.
If the Change button is disabled (Looks kinda pale and does nothing when
you click on it), it's probably that you're not an administrator. I'd check
with your local admin, and see if they can help.
Hope that helps!
Dante Gagne
Software Design Engineer/Test
Developer Division
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.