Trial Version Will not Open or Save Documents

Question

Running Windows XP Professional SP 3.  Using Word 2007 Professional, when I click OPEN from the Office Button, it immediately gives the CRITICAL STOP sound and no list of documents in My Documents folder.  Try to create a NEW document results in CRITICAL STOP.  Try to SAVE a document with SAVE AS results in CRITICAL STOP.  (Documents can be opened, editied and saved from the RECENT DOCUMENTS list OR by going directly to the My Documents folder with My Computer and executing the OPEN operation)

I was ready to get Windows 2010 so I downloaded and installed WIndows 2010 Trial Version.  It has the same problems.

1.  Office Button -> OPEN = CRITICAL STOP SOUND immediately

2.  Office Button -> RECENT DOCUMENTS = OPENS A DOCUMENT CORRECTLY - EDITS CORRECTLY - SAVES CORRECTLY

3.  Office Button -> NEW = CRITICAL STOP SOUND immediately

4.  Selecting a document in My Documents Folder (Word not running) - OPEN = OPENS CORRECTLY - EDITS CORRECTLY - SAVES CORRECTLY

5.  Office Button -> RECENT DOCUMENTS => OPENS CORRECTLY - EDIT LOOKS OK -> SAVE AS = CRITICAL STOP SOUND immediately 

5. My Documents Folder - OPEN  => OPENS CORRECTLY - EDIT LOOKS OK - SAVE AS = CRITICAL STOP immediately

If I open My Documents folder and OPEN the document (double click in folder) the document OPENS CORRECTLY.  If I open the document this way I can edit and SAVE the document in WORD but can not SAVE AS.

I tried FIXIT.  no change

I went through the steps to clean the registry. 

Delete the Word Data registry subkey

No Change

Delete the Word Options registry key

No Change**** Rename the Normal.dot or Normal.dotm global template file

No Change

Disable the Startup folder add-ins

No Change

Delete the COM add-ins registry keys

No Change**** Determine which COM add-in program is causing the problem

There are no COM add-ins

Other things observed and attempted to chage:

1. The FNAME.DLL file listed under Active Application Add-ins does not show the correct description.  It looks like a corrupted file.  The description at the bottom of that window is also blank.  I renamed the FNAME.DLL file and downloaded a new copy from the web with no change.  I made no changes to the registry in this action. 
2. Trying to change the Documents file locations using -> Word Options -> Advanced -> General -> File Locations I can select Documents but clicking Modify does not open the  Modify Location window (Double click does not work either).
3. After installing Word 2010, both 2007 and 2010 always start with the "Configuration in Progress" window displayed.

Answer 1

Different Office versions share assorted resources and files, which makes having both installed problematic as they will constantly battle for control of the registry; and their templates are only 98% compatible which can cause difficulty.

It is not so much a question of having the applications on separate drives (as they are separated anyway)  as their working template folders (which are not). These must be separated - see http://www.gmayor.com/Toolbars_in_word_2007.htm and the registry hacked to reduce the conflicts.

Microsoft has complicated the issue further with its click to run installer, which appears to be unstable in many circumstances, but in an ideal world it does allow trial versions to be installed at the same time as it uses a virtual Q drive on which to install the application.

Clearly the installation of the trial has broken the installation of Office 2007. You need to uninstall the trial and repair Office 2007 from the original installation media before you go any further.

If you are going to re-install the trial, if you want it free from problems you must allow it to replace Office 2007, so make sure that you have the 2007 product key for restoring 2007 when the trial runs out.

Note that as you can only have one version of Outlook present, if you install the Outlook 2010 trial, reverting to Outlook 2007 is not without its problems. It will not simply pick up the data and resume from the previous position. You will have to create a new profile, then open the Outlook file from that new profile and then make the file the default data file.

See also http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

Answer 2

Are you experiencing issues only in Word or other Office applications as well?

Which ‘Fix it’ did you run in trying to fix the problem?

There will be conflict if you install Office 2007 and Office 2010 on the same drive.

Remove Office 2010 trial and re-install it on a different drive and repair Office 2007 and see if it helps.

How to remove Office 2010 trial:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/remove-or-uninstall-office-2010-trial-HA101972584.aspx

How to repair Office 2007:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924611