MS Word Problems

After going to "Help" in MS Word 2003 to restore things to default there since something happened that caused my upper and bottom page margins (the blank white spaces above and below text) to disappear. Now for some reason, whenever I click a .DOC file a pop-up comes up saying "There was an error sending the command to the program" and then a Windows Installer pop-up comes and loads up Word...but without the document.

When clicking on just Word itself, the Windows Installer runs saying "Preparing to Install..." EACH and every time I load up the program. Why? I thought this happens only with a few things like the browser Opera when you don't use it for a long time.

Someone please tell me how to make it stop installing each time I load up the program and to have my Word files load right away.

Your product is old and must be set to run in compatibility mode. See HERE but tweak the location because your Word will not be in the folder listed.

Wow...the list of suggestions go on and on in that page. People claiming they don't work, etc.

But if I have the time I'll probably try some fixes out. It's not killing me, but a bit annoying.

Try this one!

Would a system restore do as well (fix the issue)? Since that's been saving me from a lot of crap on my XP computer lately...

NO. Word settings are not stored in the registry and a system restore does nothing to programs or data. System Restore is for the Operating System.

Uninstall and then a complete reinstall of Word may work to restore all the factory settings.

I've had this problem also, as TrainableMan said, a complete uninstall, and reinstall is your only option, in my experience.

...So what's all this stuff I hear about system restores "undoing" not only updates, but software installations?

It even tells you what programs it'll "uninstall" in the interval you're crossing to the past.

OK, a clarification. Yes recently installed programs would be removed back to the restore point. The reason for this is simple, the registry will be restored so all entries made to the registry by those installs will be lost and they would likely no longer function.

But, are you willing & do you even have a system restore clear back to a time before Word was installed on your machine? If yes, then the restore may also delete the Word program but in that case what is the point; why remove every windows update and everything else that was also installed since then?

Just uninstall the Word.

LOL @ "uninstall the Word" that made me laugh... (because I'd expect someone to say uninstall Word, the program, not the Word lol)

But btw the system restore I spoke of earlier that saved me from the MS Word crap actually worked. It no longer did the problems I mentioned in the opening post.

Thanks for your help btw and in the keylogger thread.