Word Crashes When Opening .DOC from A Web Link

One of the schools we work in uses a resource called Primary Resources. It includes downloadable files that can be used for teaching. Here is a link:

Primary Resources: English: Word Level: Spelling & Phonics

The teaches are trying to download the .DOC files on the web page but they are getting a popup in IE to save saying the file may be corrupted. In the background word crashes and has a box saying "Word cannot close because there is an active dialog box open". You then have to end the process to be able to use word again.

The version of word is Word 2000 on a Windows 7 Pro 32 Bit machine. It does the same thing for us in both IE8 and IE9 but does not seem to do it in another browser such as chrome.

From what I can tell the problem seems to be IE sending the command to Word to open the file. The strangest thing is that the .DOCX files seem to open perfectly fine though (they use the compatability pack so I guess it opens abit differently).

I have tried upgrading IE, turning off all security in the web browser, reinstalling office, checking default programs are setup for .doc files correctly, tried windows updates, different web browsers (which chrome works) and so on. Im abit stumped now, realistically the school doesnt want to pay a fortune to upgrade office on every machine and seeing as the problem seems to be in IE8 and 9 im really lost for what to do.

Any ideas anyone? SOS!

Also we did try to recreate the problem in our own office with the same environment, IE8/9 and Office 2000 on a Windows 7 Pro 32 Bit machine but we had no luck. We also have another school that has the same setup but it seems to work for them :S

Hi I have been through the Word 2000 Solution Center and nothing has helped the issue. What is confusing me is that it seems to be spreading around the school. Its not that teachers havent noticed it before, it seems that something has changed on their systems to cause it (maybe a Windows Update or some template file or something? :S) Also the second link refers to IE crashing, in this case it is when IE sends the command to word to open the .DOC file Word simply crashes in the background before opening. Thanks for the reply!

no, it seems to happen with any .doc file on any website

All the machines in the school have the office compatibility pack installed, its one of the standard software packages that we deploy. I know its working because the links to the .DOCX files work fine on the same web page :S

no its not the exact same documents, we have also tried the website in our office and at other schools with the same setup (ie8/9, word 2000) and it works fine at other places