Windows Explorer Problem

[Guest]

Windows Explorer has started opening my Word documents with WordPad instead
of MSWord. The little icons in the Explorer window have changed from the
MSWord icon with the familiar "W" to the WordPad icon with it's distinctive
"A". Also, when I save Word documents to my flash drive they are being saved
as WordPad documents. I can't figure out how this happened or how to change
it back to MSWord.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi DM,

See:

How to change file associations in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307859

HOW TO: Specify the Program Used to Open Certain Types of Files in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306551

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Windows Explorer has started opening my Word documents with WordPad instead
of MSWord. The little icons in the Explorer window have changed from the
MSWord icon with the familiar "W" to the WordPad icon with it's distinctive
"A". Also, when I save Word documents to my flash drive they are being saved
as WordPad documents. I can't figure out how this happened or how to change
it back to MSWord.

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much Ramesh. Your help is very appreciated. I have followed
the procedure you specified and now MS Word is opening the documents from
Windows Explorer but I wrote a test document and saved it and it was still
saved as a WordPad document. The icon in Windows Explorer was a WordPad
icon. Do you have another helpful suggestion please?

Cheers,

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi DM,

Click Start, Run and type CONTROL FOLDERS. This opens the Folder Options applet. Select the File Types tab, and select .DOC filetype from the listing. Click the "Restore" button once. Click "Advanced" and change the "open" action accordingly, pointing to Winword.exe executable.

Alternately, delete the .doc association completely, and repair Winword using the Word / Office CD (if available)

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Thank you very much Ramesh. Your help is very appreciated. I have followed
the procedure you specified and now MS Word is opening the documents from
Windows Explorer but I wrote a test document and saved it and it was still
saved as a WordPad document. The icon in Windows Explorer was a WordPad
icon. Do you have another helpful suggestion please?

Cheers,