What the heck, it's a noobish question about MICROSOFT WORD?!

[mr_pikachu]

Backstory time. Okay, so my computer's been having problems for quite awhile. I figured there was something weird going on with the registry, but like an idiot, I put off buying a registry cleaner. So my performance has gradually degraded.

A couple of days ago, my computer got really bad, and I started looking around for possible causes; I found one in the "Program Files" area. Anyway, that's not particularly important. What is important is that, when I tried to open Microsoft Word to type some of the information as a note to myself, I couldn't. Instead, when I clicked the Start Menu shortcut like always, my computer tried to reconfigure Microsoft Office XP Small Business. And Word wouldn't open at all, no matter how I handled the situation.

Not good.

Several hours later, I'd bought a new progream and cleaned the registry, and my computer's performance had increased accordingly. But Word still wouldn't open. I've since circumvented the problem somewhat and started using an alternate copy of the program in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10. But some things are still weird. For instance, it likes to open up the same configuring window whenever I paste text into Word, and sometimes it just does that at random. I'm not sure what's wrong with this alternate version, and I'd really like to know why the regular one won't function at all.

So, two questions.


1. Where is a pre-installed copy of Word typically found on a PC running Windows XP Home? (I'd like to see if the original program's still there, or if the "problems" I was having corrupted it.)

2. Does anyone have any clue what's going on with the other version of Word? >_<


P.S. Additional info:

The version of Word that I'm now using is 10.0.2627.0.

I doubt the make and model of my computer are important, but if they are somehow relevant, I'm using an eMachines T2958. (Go on, laugh. I know you want to.)

I'm not exactly sure where the standard Word shortcut used to redirect; maybe the shortcut itself has been altered. That's another thing I need to check, and I need help to do that. In any event, the target is now "Microsoft Office XP Home Business." (The target location is blank.)

[Jeff]

You could try searching for either "word.exe" or "winword.exe". I know that the executable for word was named "winword.exe" in older versions, but not sure if it's been changed.

[mr_pikachu]

Okay, um, that's a bad sign.

Ran a search for word.exe, like you suggested (since that should also turn up anything with winword.exe in its name). The only result was the copy in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10, which is the one I've been using since the old shortcut doesn't work. And that program isn't exactly running smoothly, as I said before.

...So... what now? Is there somewhere I can download a non-buggy copy of Word if I prove that my copy of XP is legitimate, or something?

[Lady Vulpix]

Maybe at http://office.microsoft.com/ (it's been a long time since I last used Microsoft Office and I never got a version beyond 97, but it's probably there.)

[mr_pikachu]

Hmm... I'm not really sure if that'll help. Every download on that site is either a security patch or a trial package. I don't need a trial, since I already have the (somewhat-functional) program, and added security won't help if the program's already been lost... dang it.

[kainashi]

if push comes to shove, you could always give abiword (http://www.abisource.com/) or openoffice (http://www.openoffice.org) a try.