*.doc files - MS - installer; corruption; file conversion; ?

[jaymax2U]

Hello,

MS Word 2003, Win 2K O/S
Several of my word documents, '*.doc', now appear with a default type icon with a small windows logo inserted. On opening these a
"Windows Installer" dialog box appears .
saying => Preparing to install, this is followed rapidly by another

"Microsoft Office Word" stating => "The command cannot be performed because a dialog box is open. Click OK, and then close open dialog box to continue".

Following on these instructions a darkened 'grey' Microsoft word screen appears with a small Window/Dialox box inserted =>
"File Conversion - filename.doc. Inside there are radio button options for Windows (default); MS-DOS; and Other encoding,
Lots of unintelligible cryptic code is present in the peview section of this box. selecting the various options on the coding from Western European ==> US-ASCII ==> various unicode creates minor changes but none to the improved readabiliy of the files.

What is causing this and how can i escape this morass?

Thanks

 

[JPaules]

Are these files stored locally?

--
JP

 

[cmeagan656]

Does the same thing happen if you open Word and then open the document from within Word?

Have you checked that you file associations haven't been messed up. I forget where it is in W2K but in XP its accessed through Windows Explorer ->Tools and then clicking on the File Types tab.

Have you tried a Detect and Repair of Word? (Help ->Detect and Repair)?

Hope this helps.

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[jaymax2U]

New observation

Word Help>>Repair ==>successful

When I invoke the Tools>>Folder Options>>File Types>> menu and select the DOC icon, the Details for DOC extension shows => Opens with Microsoft Open XML Converter. Icons appear normal but same SNAFU on opening.

Changing this to Microsoft Office Word and reseting icons disappear to generic ones. Dialog box states extensions was customized. Some files opening (Read Only)