I have a friend using Windows XP 2002 and if he sends me a word document
attachment I cannot open it with the Vista Home Basic program. Attempts to
get response from Microsoft have been fruitless. I would not have bought the
Vista software had I thought it would be incompatible with other microsoft
software.
This has *nothing* to do with your friend's using Windows XP or with
your having bought the Vista software. Vista is *not* incompatible
with other Microsoft software, and can deal with Word documents just
fine.
Vista Home Basic is an operating system. Neither it, nor any other
operating system, can open a Word document file. To open a Word
document file (presumably a .doc file) you need to have installed a
copy of Word, or some compatible program.
If you expected Word to come with Vista, let me make it clear that
*no* version of Windows has ever included Excel, Word, PowerPoint,
Access, or any other significant application software. Such programs
have to be bought, either by themselves or as part of Microsoft
Office.
If your previous computer, running an older version of Windows, came
with one or more such programs, it was because the vendor who sold it
bundled it as part of the package he sold you, not because that
version of Windows came with it. Some, but not all, vendors do the
same with Windows Vista. Yours apparently did not.
If you want Word, you need to buy it, either alone, as part of
Microsoft Office, or, most inexpensively, as part of Microsoft Works
*Suite* (not the regular Works). Alternatively, you can acquire
another less expensive or even free word processor, such as that
included with WordPerfect Office, StarOffice, or OpenOffice (all of
those can open Word files).
And if just want to view your friend's Word files, but not modify them
or create your own, you can download the free Microsoft Word viewer
from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en
or
http://tinyurl.com/3qlb4
One other point: opening executable attachments (and Word files can
have embedded macros, and are therefore executable) is a very
dangerous practice. You often see advice not to open attachments from
people you don't know. I think that that's one of the most dangerous
pieces of advice you see around, because it implies that it's safe to
do the opposite--open attachments from friends and relatives. But many
viruses spread by sending themselves to everyone in the infected
party's address book, so attachments received from what purports to be
your friend are perhaps the *most* risky to open.
Even if the attachment legitimately comes from a friend, it can
contain a virus. I'm not suggesting that a friend is likely to send
you a virus on purpose, but if the friend is infected without
realizing it, any attachment he sends you is likely to also be
infected.
I never open executable attachments at all, except from a *very* few
trusted sources, and then only when I'm expecting them.
