Word asks if I want to update normal.dotm on each exit from word, even with a newly created blank document

About the "administrator" issue...

In some cases (and this seems to be one), it isn't enough to be a member of the Administrators group; you have to log in as the Administrator because you will potentially alter all other profiles on the computer. That's true even if there are no other profiles.

If you're worried about a virus, use one of the many online virus scanners first. Good ones are eset.com and f-secure.com.

This is like taking the battery out of your smoke detector because the detector keeps beeping. It is rarely a good idea. You WANT to know when something has changed. If you are not the one who has made the changes, you want to ascertain what is doing it.

Just to clarify, the PDFMakerOfficeAddin is this one?

If so, this means you have some version of Adobe Acrobat installed? You might need to change a setting in Acrobat. Alternatively, you could try deleting the add-in from the location shown in the dialog:

It should by default be sent to the Recycle Bin, so if this proves unhelpful, you can easily restore it from there. If this is really the add-in from Acrobat, though, I doubt it is the source of the problem, as I have never had any issue with that add-in.

PDF Complete was notorious for this; perhaps PDFMaker is the same.

Message received:

Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dotm. Do you want to save these changes?

Actions so far taken to identify/solve the problem:

Action: Run winword.exe /a .

Result: No request to save changes.

Action: View macros.

Result: Macros from Zotero found.

Action: Go to Developer tab and click on Word Add-ins

Result: Zotero.dotm and only Zotero.dotm found for document template Normal. The check box for it is checked. In the XML schemas tab, ActionPane Schema for Add-Ins appears. It is unchecked. There is nothing in the XML expansion pack or Linked CSS tabs.

Action: In the Developer tab clicked on COM Add-ins

Result: PDFMaker Office Addin is the only add-in listed. The check box for it is unchecked.

Action: delete zotero.dotm from C:\Users[user]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP and run Word

Result: Word asks if I want to save changes.

Action: Rename normal.dot and normal.dotm to normal.dot.old and normal.dotm.old and run Word.

Result: Word asks if I want to save changes. No new normal.dot or normal.dotm templates are created.

Action: Run Word without clicking on a blank doc (I clicked on this each time that I ran Word before).

Result: Word asks if I want to save changes. No new normal.dot or normal.dotm are created.

Action: Did Everywhere search for normal.dot.

Result: Found only normal.dotm.old and normal.dot.old.

This is getting quite frustrating, and any help will be greatly appreciated.

I bolded the action you took that helps me know that the problem is almost certainly an Add-In. Some are (poorly) written so that they make changes to your template and trigger this message.

Rename your Normal.dotm.old template to Normal.dotm with Word closed. Word only creates a new normal template when you change a default and save the changes.

I wrote a web page about this a long time ago which is still valid.

Save Changes to the Global Template? Keeps Popping Up

Check for other Add-Ins in your Word Startup Folder. Move them out of that folder. Perhaps create a sub-folder labelled "Stop." Don't delete them because you may want them. Look at my page for step-by-step instructions.