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MS Word/Outlook Errors

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by lschilkowski

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We recently stopped using a workgroup set up and had a 3rd party company configure a network for us and get all of the computers hooked up, except 1. One PC had WinXP Home instead of Pro for some reason. So, we bought WinXP Pro, loaded it, got it hooked up to the network, etc. Everything worked fine, except when she opened Outlook and it tried to run Word as the editor, Word wouldn't open. It says Word couldn't start, asks if we want Word to recover documents & retry. Then it asks if we want to open in Safe Mode. If we say no, we get stuck in a loop. If we say yes, Word opens in Safe Mode and stays minimized, but then her Outlook doesn't function properly. She can create emails, but gets an error when trying to send/receive. Nothing leaves her outbox (though the recipients seem to receive the emails anyway) and nothing ends up in her inbox either.

I've already tried uninstalling/reinstalling all of Office without success. I also unchecked the boxes to use Word as editor. Same errors. I have a feeling part of the problem may be because I attempted to switch all of her profile information over from her maiden name to her married name when I updated the OS and got her hooked up to the network. Just not sure if this would affect Word and, if so, how to fix it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

3 replies

by bdfrazier

Even though it seems logical to uninstall and reinstall Word (been there), the potential cause of the problem may not be under Program Files but under Documents & Settings. The problem may be with the user?s Normal.dot Word template ? it could be corrupted.

Each user profile under XP gets its own Normal.dot template to use, so navigate to hers by going to C:\Documents and Settings\USER?S_NAME_HERE\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates (assuming the path defaults were accepted during install). Rename the Normal.dot file to Normal.Old and have the user open Word so a new Normal.dot template is created. Close Word.

Then open Outlook. If you currently have Word selected ?to edit e-mail messages? you?ll know immediately if creating the new template fixed the problem since Winword.exe launches with Outlook.exe. If the new template does not fix the user?s problem then you?ll have to see if there are any Word add-in .dlls causing issues. To check for any disabled add-ins, open Word, select Help > About Microsoft Word > Disabled Items.

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