Solved How do I restore Word as my file editor? Office 365 killed it.

[soho1]

I poked around the forum a bit and found some old dead threads, not fully answered, so i am posting for help!
I recently subscribed to Office 365 (that and the usual Microsoft updates are all that have changed on my computer in the last week) but now Windows Word (Office 2010 local installation) is no longer my default editor.

I tried the default programs utility, but it does not even know that Office 2010 is still installed. I can run Word manually, browse and open a file. I can browse to a file and Open With to get to Word, but by default, DOCx files want to open with wordpad of all things!

How can I get this reconfigured. I would NOT like to have to reinstall office.

RECAP FOR THIS THREAD (for members finding this same problem)
There is some root cause problem yet undetermined with the assignment of default programs.
An error message appears where a list of programs should appear.
The root problem affects other types of file associations too, this problem is not limited to office.
Re-registering Microsoft Office (i.e. winword /r) had a positive effect on being able to click an office file to open it, but none of the office programs appear available as a select-able default.

Right-click "open with" > "set default program" still results in an error message. (MOVING THIS ASPECT TO ANOTHER THREAD.)

 

[VistaKing]

Do you have Office 2010 installed ?

 

[strollin]

Browse to a word file with the docx extension then right-click and select "Open with ..." then click on "Choose default program...". On the Open with dialog, put a checkmark in the box that says "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" and then click on browse. Navigate to where Word is installed, should be someplace like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 14 and find the file winword.exe, click on it then click Open. That dialog will close, click OK on the remaining dialog and you should be good to go.

 

[soho1]

Yes, I have Office 2010 installed.

 

[soho1]

As I said, I can choose Word from the list to "Open With". However, there is no "list" of programs when chosing to set the default program. Instead I am directed to use the Set Defaults program, which does not show Word in the list.

 

[soho1]

Here is a screen shot of trying to set the default program. Word is not included.

 

[soho1]

On the Open with dialog, put a checkmark in the box that says "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" and then click on browse...

I do not get the dialog that you are expecting.

 

[soho1]

Searching for a registry solutin, I found a Microsoft FixIt tool related to Word settings as described here: How to reset user options and registry settings in Word however that had no effect.

 

[soho1]

Am currently looking suspiciously at Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB2687455).

 

[derekimo]

As I said, I can choose Word from the list to "Open With". However, there is no "list" of programs when chosing to set the default program. Instead I am directed to use the Set Defaults program, which does not show Word in the list.

On this screen here,



If you select Choose default program, do you get this screen?



From there you can use the browse button to go to the location strollin posted to find the winword.exe

 

[soho1]

I get the 1st screen BUT NOT THE SECOND. Sorry if that was not clear in my post above. Attached is an example.

 

[strollin]

Try opening a command prompt and navigating to the office folder (should be something like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14). Once in the correct folder, enter winword /r which should register Word so the systen knows it's installed. Once that's done then you should be able to find it in the default programs list.

 

[soho1]

I opened a DOS command windows
I did a CD "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14"
I performed the winword /r
Office re-registered.

Kudos to Strollin, as Winword DOES indeed now open the file if I click on it.
However, my other symptoms of the root problem have not disappeared.

This did NOT change the list of default programs (as seen by start > run > set default programs, which can also be found directly in the control panel).
and the ERROR MESSAGE, instead of an "open with" list, has not changed (see my posts above) - so I am moving this registry issue to another thread.

Thank you.

Attached is another example of the error when I try to "open with" on right-click.

Also, I have checked that this problem is affecting ALL existing and new users on the computer.

 

[ash19leigh]

Same Problem Solved

Hello

I had exactly the same problem and only came across this forum today. I managed to fix mine so I thought I should post to see if it solves anyone elses problem.

I have Windows 7 and the option to 'Open With' does not appear. I had to:

1) Click Open
2) Select program from list
3) Searched my C drive for 'Word', found it: C drive> Program Files(x86)> Common files> microsoft shared> Virtualisation Handler>
...and the file name was CVH
4) I then went back to the program list and browsed through the folders to find CVH.

And hey presto it worked! I hope this helps someone else.

 

[WangSage]

This is an old post, but it's important to know a valid, working solution (because I scoured the Internet and few people actually had a working solution). This issue annoyed the heck out of me too. I found something that actually works and I feel the world must know. There has to be something decent and good left in this world.


Symptoms:

• 365 broke my 2010 as the original poster noted. No surprises there.
• Anyways, double-clicking any *.doc, *.docx and *.docm files launches Word 365/2013 (ugly, annoying color scheme).
• If you launch Office 2010 products directly and then open existing files it'll open those files in Office 2010.
• If you look at any sort of "default" Control Panel screen, Word/Excel 2010 is nowhere to be found.
• If you attempt to right-click and Open With and attempt to browse into the proper "Office14" path to open the proper 2010 Word or Excel EXE files, it doesn't fix the Office 365 file association.

I tried various things people suggested such as messing with the registry, Default Programs in Control Panel, even the tip immediately above my post etc.. No go.


The solution that worked for me (Windows 7, 64-bit):

1. Go into Control Panel > Programs and Features.
2. Right-click Office 2010 and select Change.
3. Select Repair. Allow repair to finish.

The icons for my *.doc, *.docx and *.docm files all now show the familiar 2010 version. When double-clicking those files, Word 2010 now launches.

 

[rjdriver]

Works with Open Office as well

>>>>The solution that worked for me (Windows 7, 64-bit):

1. Go into Control Panel > Programs and Features.
2. Right-click Office 2010 and select Change.
3. Select Repair. Allow repair to finish. <<<<


Wang Sage:

Thank you so much for posting this solution. I had a similar problem with Office 2013 that I believe was caused by Open Office rather than 365.

After uninstalling Open Office. .docx files opened with Wordpad by default. No amount of reassigning the file extension to winword.exe changed that, nor did running the winword /r fix, even from within the directory.

Running the repair as you described from Control Panel did the trick.