Solved Opening Word docs by clicking on them not working

I’ve recently bought a Windows 11 computer. Most teething niggles are now overcome except that double-clicking on a Word document opens Word, but not the document. Same happens when using ‘Open with’. MS-Excel documents are opening just fine when I click on them.

File associations (Settings > Apps and through ‘Open With’) are in place (otherwise it wouldn’t open Word).

I’m using an old version of MS-Office that is otherwise working as expected, but I have to open files from within Word.

Word security options are set to LOW (I’m using extensive VBA macros).

I’ve uninstalled the Microsoft 365 app,

I've created another user account and when logged in under that account, the issue is absent. Word docs open when double-clicking on them.

Any thoughts on what is going on and how to fix it?

Click to expand...

Thanks.

I'm not sure, but this (short) thread and solution may be related. Worth a try.

I think there's an error in the File association entry for Word in the Current user section of your Registry.

Make a new system image before changing anything. Restoring a system image can be quicker & less confusing than having to cope with an error made when changing things.
my ditty - File backup vs imaging, imaging utilities, backing up drivers [post #3] - TenForums

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You do not mention which MSOffice Version you are running.
After uninstalling MSOffice365 it is worth running the Office repair procedure for your other Version.
Repair an Office application - OfficeSupport
If your other Version is MSOffice 2007 then you can run Office repair from the MSOffice 2007 entry in the Control panel, progs & features or from
Doing this, or doing this again, might well fix the problem for you.

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Otherwise, I suggest you use NirSoft's FileTypesMan while logged in to the problem account and then while logged in to the good account.
You can then use that utility to alter the File association Registry entry for the problem account so it matches the good one.
NirSoft FileTypesMan
File Types Manager review - gHacks Tech News
Using FileTypesMan [dalchina] - TenForums

In both checks, look down FileTypesMan's list for the .docx etc entries, look at details pane i.e. the lower half of the window, find the Open entry then look in the DDE Message column.
Do you see the %1 in there. That's the bit telling it to open the selected file and not just run Word.
If your good user account has that but your bad one doesn't then that's the problem and you can fix it using FileTypesMan - right-click, Edit, change the bad entry to the same as the good entry.


Best of luck,
Denis

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Thanks so much. I'll give it a whirl and post back. For this project, I'm using Word 2003 / Office 11. (Lots of VBA with toobars etc. and it runs much faster than 2007 onwards when opening and searching thousands of files in a database.)

That sounded like the right kind of solution, but all the relevant DDE messages are the same. Will investigate further tomorrow, but this may not be it.

I have also had this problem with Microsoft Office 2003 on Windows 11. Once I disabled OneDrive backup I was able to open Word files fine.
If you have OneDrive backup enabled disable it and see if you can then open your Word files.

That also sounded hopeful, but when checked, I had already disabled Microsoft OneDrive in my main user account in the STARTUP menu (via Task Manager) as also in Apps. For good measure I also did the Unlink this PC in its properties window. Restarted, and no luck. Looked at my test user account and OneDrive was enabled and Word docs opened ok on doubleclicking. I disabled OneDrive on the text account, restarted and was still able to open Word docs by double-clicking.

Thinking that there might be some conflict with other programs I'm running, I disabled DisplayFusion (handles multiple screens) and WizMouse (enables scolling on windows that do not have the focus). Restarted, Still no joy.

I guess that the approach must be to finding out what the difference is between the two accounts, Maybe by adding things into the test account until it develops the same issue.

I could also simply recreate another user account. Might be the quickest way.

Will post back if/when I have a resolution. All further suggestions welcome! Thanks.

Well, I created a new user (JohnNew) and copied things across or set them up again. No problems with Word now. I renamed the original user John as JohnOld, and then renamed JohnNew as John, presuming that the Users folder names would be correspondingly changed. Not so in Windows 11! I am now left with a new user name (John) in which Word functions correctly, but with many of the crucial settings in the C:/Users/JohnNew folder.

This should probably go in a new thread but before doing that does anyone know how to safely combine the user named John whose main users folder name is JohnNew with whatever Windows is keeping in the folder called John which belonged to the original account named John. I hope that makes sense! I need the user account name and the C:/Users/ folder name to be the same, and with just one set of user files.

So I now have a user called John whose Users folder is called JohnNew. Not very elegant, but I'm leaving it at that. Seems to be what WIndows 11 does if you change the name of a user. Everything is now working as it should. Thanks for all the suggestions.