Microsoft Word 1997 - 2003 No Longer Works On My PC Laptop! (2 Viewers)

[BobO'Link]

There were maybe a half dozen files which I deleted. I no longer get the MS Word dialogue box, BUT the multiple file openings with freeze up, followed by eventual MS Word crashing bugaboo remains!

It may be that those backup files live somewhere else for some reason... Open Explorer, select "C:" and search for ".wbk" (without the quotes). wbk is the extension Word uses for those backup files. Let search run and finish then delete *all* of the files it finds with that extension. It's likely they'll be in "My Documents" but searching "C:" should find them if they're in another unexpected location.

If that doesn't work, you *may* need a full, complete, uninstall of Office. To do that:

Run the Office uninstaller and reboot when it finishes.

When the computer is back up, open Explorer, browse to and delete *all* folders that have "Microsoft Office" as the name or part of the name in "C:\Program Files". Do the same in "C:\Program Files (x86)".

Browse to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared" and delete any folders which have OFFICE as the name or part of the name (leave all others). Do the same in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared".

Browse to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft" and delete the Office folder (leave all others.

*Finally,* go to "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft" and delete folders having a MS Office name (Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc.) *and* the "Templates" folder. Do *not* delete any other non-Office folders (You'll likely see folders for Edge, and other MS apps and should leave those alone).

Once you've done that clean up process, reboot. Then install Office again.

 

[Tony Bensley]

It may be that those backup files live somewhere else for some reason... Open Explorer, select "C:" and search for ".wbk" (without the quotes). wbk is the extension Word uses for those backup files. Let search run and finish then delete *all* of the files it finds with that extension. It's likely they'll be in "My Documents" but searching "C:" should find them if they're in another unexpected location.

If that doesn't work, you *may* need a full, complete, uninstall of Office. To do that:

Run the Office uninstaller and reboot when it finishes.

When the computer is back up, open Explorer, browse to and delete *all* folders that have "Microsoft Office" as the name or part of the name in "C:\Program Files". Do the same in "C:\Program Files (x86)".

Browse to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared" and delete any folders which have OFFICE as the name or part of the name (leave all others). Do the same in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared".

Browse to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft" and delete the Office folder (leave all others.

*Finally,* go to "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft" and delete folders having a MS Office name (Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc.) *and* the "Templates" folder. Do *not* delete any other non-Office folders (You'll likely see folders for Edge, and other MS apps and should leave those alone).

Once you've done that clean up process, reboot. Then install Office again.

A quick search in My Documents revealed zero .wbk files, and the "C" drive search is taking forever. I'm thinking I'll have to do the uninstall Office, plus the other files you mentioned. I probably have two versions installed in all the vain efforts I've been making to get MS Word to work. Everything's a mess, at the moment.

CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

A quick search in My Documents revealed zero .wbk files, and the "C" drive search is taking forever. I'm thinking I'll have to do the uninstall Office, plus the other files you mentioned. I probably have two versions installed in all the vain efforts I've been making to get MS Word to work. Everything's a mess, at the moment.

CHEERS!

Hi Howie!

Followed all of your directions, plus removed MS Frontpage, as that was part of the MS Office setup. I even uninstalled Libre Writer and Microsoft 365 in case they were also causing issues. Sadly, all of this didn't fix my problem, and I've just reinstalled Libre Writer, as I need SOMETHING if I can't ever MS Word up and running again. Don't know what else to do, at this point?

I really appreciate all of your help!

CHEERS!

 

[BobO'Link]

Tony - I did a bit more research and found that Word 2000 *may* use a different naming scheme for the backup files...

Try searching your "My Documents" folder for "Backup of" (without the quotes) and delete all of the ones found (or just move them to a "backup" folder on your desktop - basically somewhere Word can't automatically find them.

And you may not even have to search - they may all be listed together in the My Documents folder with the file names all starting with "Backup of" followed by the name of the original file(s).

 

[Tony Bensley]

Tony - I did a bit more research and found that Word 2000 *may* use a different naming scheme for the backup files...

Try searching your "My Documents" folder for "Backup of" (without the quotes) and delete all of the ones found (or just move them to a "backup" folder on your desktop - basically somewhere Word can't automatically find them.

And you may not even have to search - they may all be listed together in the My Documents folder with the file names all starting with "Backup of" followed by the name of the original file(s).

Hi Howie!

I just tried the "Backup of" in My Documents and came up empty.

Also, upon checking, I've just found that all of the other programs from MS Office XP Pro with Frontpage, including Access, Excel, Frontpage (Prompted me with a repair option, which I'm presently undertaking), Outlook and PowerPoint either can't be accessed at all, generating an error message, or else crash after opening.

EDIT: The repairing of Frontpage now allows me to access it, only for it to crash, along with the other included MS Office programs.

This appears to mirror my issue precisely (Don't know why the Microsoft Page link displays as Redirecting?):

Redirecting

answers.microsoft.com

 

[BobO'Link]

Hi Howie!

I just tried the "Backup of" in My Documents and came up empty.

Also, upon checking, I've just found that all of the other programs from MS Office XP Pro with Frontpage, including Access, Excel, Frontpage (Prompted me with a repair option, which I'm presently undertaking), Outlook and PowerPoint either can't be accessed at all, generating an error message, or else crash after opening.

EDIT: The repairing of Frontpage now allows me to access it, only for it to crash, along with the other included MS Office programs.

This appears to mirror my issue precisely (Don't know why the Microsoft Page link displays as Redirecting?):

Redirecting

answers.microsoft.com

That link is, essentially, an expanded version of what I sent earlier - more steps (registry stuff mostly). Follow the instructions and be careful. Hopefully it'll fix you up. If not - I'd say just give up and use LibreOffice.

 

[Tony Bensley]

That link is, essentially, an expanded version of what I sent earlier - more steps (registry stuff mostly). Follow the instructions and be careful. Hopefully it'll fix you up. If not - I'd say just give up and use LibreOffice.

Thanks, Howie!

I've tried the winword r thing and the Off Scrub options. Sadly, my attempts seem to amount to a circle jerk of mass MS Word doc openings/crashes to single MS word doc opening/crash and back to the former!

Short of doing a Windows 10 clean install that may or may not work, I think I'm stuck with Libre Writer for documents, which is OK except when the drop columns go dark (For which there seems to be no rhyme or reason!) and the words become very difficult to read. Still, it's better than nothing. Fortunately, I haven't bothered with any of the other MS Office apps for many years now, so I can live without them, if need be.

CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

[Deleted] Wrong Thread.