Microsoft Word 2003 crashes when opened. HELP please

Question

Microsoft Word 2003 won't run ... it opens momentarily then crashes. It had worked until recently. How can I resolve this? Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide. Daniel C

Answer 1

Upon re-installation of Word, I get: "Error 1919, ODBC data source: Visual FoxPro Database, ODBC error 6. Component not found in registry. Verify file Visual FoxPro exists and you can access it."

Does the error message prevent you from reinstalling Office, or does the reinstall complete but you can't run Word without seeing the error?

Answer 2

Please note, this is a user forum and not official Microsoft support.

Are you trying this on Windows 10 or 11? Office 2003 is not officially supported there. So your mileage may vary. Having said that your issue seems to stem from a connection to FoxPro. Do you require the database connection? Or do you just want to run Office?

Assuming you just want to run Office you'd need to remove the broken ODBC connection. Either remove FoxPro from your system (go to programs and remove software) or run "odbcad32" and look for the drivers and remove.

After that, it should work I think.

Answer 3

Use the built-in Word troubleshooting steps to identify and remove the cause of the crash. Try these methods in order and test Word after each step.

1. Start Word with the /a switch

• This starts Word without add-ins or global templates and with locked settings files.
• Select Start > Search, type Run, press Enter.
• In the Run box, type: winword /a and press Enter.
• If Word runs without crashing, the problem is likely an add-in, template, or setting. Proceed with the next steps.

2. Remove problematic templates/add-ins from Startup folders Crashes at startup are often caused by incompatible templates or add-ins in Word’s Startup folders.

For Word 2003:

1. Exit all Office programs, including Outlook.
2. In Windows Explorer, enable viewing hidden files (Tools > Folder Options > View > select Show hidden files and folders).
3. Open these folders and temporarily move their contents out (for example, to the desktop):
   • Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Startup
   • Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\Startup
4. Restart Word.
   • If Word now opens and does not crash, one of the removed templates/add-ins is the cause.
5. To identify the specific file, move items back one at a time, restarting Word after each move until the crash reappears. Leave the offending file removed.

Alternatively, for the user Startup folder only (common cause in Word 2003):

1. Go to drive:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\Startup.
2. Create a new folder named Temp.
3. Move one template at a time from Startup to Temp, trying to start Word after each move.
4. When Word starts successfully, the last moved template is the conflicting one. Keep that template removed and move the others back.
5. Reset Word’s registry settings (Word 2003) If removing templates/add-ins does not help, reset Word’s user settings in the registry. This can fix crashes caused by corrupted settings.

Important: Modifying the registry incorrectly can cause serious problems. Back up the registry first as described in How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

A. Delete the Word Data key

1. Exit all Office programs.
2. Select Start > Run, type regedit, press Enter.
3. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data
4. Select Data, then File > Export, save as Wddata.reg to the desktop (backup).
5. Select Edit > Delete, confirm Yes.
6. Close Registry Editor and start Word.
   • If Word now works, the issue was a damaged Data key. Reconfigure any Word options as needed.

B. If needed, delete the Word Options key If the crash persists:

1. Exit all Office programs.
2. Open regedit again.
3. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options
4. Select Options, then File > Export, save as Wdoptn.reg to the desktop.
5. Select Edit > Delete, confirm Yes.
6. Close Registry Editor and start Word.
   • If Word now works, the issue was a damaged Options key. Reapply preferred settings.

If deleting a registry key does not help, restore it by double-clicking the corresponding .reg file (Wddata.reg or Wdoptn.reg) on the desktop and confirming.

4. If a specific document causes the crash If Word only crashes when opening a particular document, the file may be damaged. To recover content without the final paragraph mark (which stores document-level info):
5. Open Word (blank document).
6. Select File > New > Blank Document.
7. On the Insert tab, select Object > Text from File.
8. Select the problematic file and click Insert.

This often recovers most of the text even if the original file is partially corrupted.

If, after these steps, Word 2003 still crashes immediately on startup, a full Office repair or reinstall may be required, but that is outside the provided context.

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References:

• You receive a Windows Installer Error 1605 error message when you start Word 2003
• You receive error messages when you start Word
• How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word