Re: Word cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Farrell
  • Start date Start date
Sesquipedalian said:
This article asks me to make a Registry change. I'd really rather not
do that. Is there any other fix?

This article says it may be caused by a security update. I suggest
MSFT needs to send out another update to fix the update. And then
actually do a little testing BEFORE they ship the updates. This is the
second time in a year or so that an update broke something that I know
of.

The error only seems to happen when I open a .doc document. I'm
running Office 2007.

Sam, did you read the KnowledgeBase article linked from that page? This
isn't an error, it's deliberate; Microsoft wants to prevent you from using
the old WordPad converter because it isn't secure. The registry change is
intended for administrators who consider using the converter more important
than closing the security hole, at least temporarily. Also, because it's a
deliberate change, there is never going to be "another fix" for the security
update.

But your problem is a bit different from what the articles describe. You're
trying to open a .doc file in Word 2007, which should have nothing to do
with WordPad or the old converter. What's happened is that Windows has
associated the .doc extension with WordPad instead of Word. If the security
patch hadn't been applied, the document would have opened in WordPad (which
can also read the .doc format), and you would have been complaining about
that instead. ;-)

Run the winword /r command as described in
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ReRegisterWord.htm and see if that
fixes the problem.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Sesquipedalian said:
I pretty sure the .doc extension is associated with Word. If I
double-click a .doc file, it opens in Word, always has. I just tested
it again.

OK, maybe I'm wrong about the association -- but if so, I don't understand
how the WordPad converter could get involved in the process. I still think
reregistering Word is worth a try; it's quick, and at worst it won't have
any effect.
Do I need to close Word (all open docs) first?

Yes, close all open documents and shut down Word. Then run the command from
the Start > Run box or from a command prompt window.
Do you still think I need to do this even though .doc files are
already associated with Word?

It can't hurt, and it might help.


--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Thanks for the advice.
However, I did not have wordpad in the subdirectory-any other
suggestions?
 
Remove the security update (MS09-073) that caused the problem.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com
 
That was the very first help I sent them too. So surely they have followed
and uninstalled it already?

Terry
 
Doug,

I have removed KB973904 which you requested and still having the issue. I
cannot open a 97-2003 file in my office 2007. I can though go file, open and
choose recover text from any file and it will open but adds a bunch of
characters. I even tried open office which someone requested might work but
it didn't. I did not have the registry entry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

\Applets\Wordpad

I did create it and changed it from 0 to 1 and it would open but with alot
of characters added to make it really non readable. I even tried winword /r
and still no luck. Has there been a fix for this????????????????
 
Hello Josh,
Did you try simply going back to a system restore point?
This worked fine for us.
Flip
 
Flip said:
Hello Josh,
Did you try simply going back to a system restore point?
This worked fine for us.
Flip

FLIP,

We cant do a system restore on our domain as its blocked by group policy so
there is no way for us to try that. There must be another way though to get
this working but it seems i have tried everything.

Josh
 
Have a look at the link : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973904

There are 2 solutions. If you don't want your machine to be vulnerable then just go ahead with this option:

When a file has the ".doc" file name extension, but the content is a plain text file or another kind of file that is not a Microsoft Word binary file, and that file is opened in Microsoft Word, you may receive the following error message up to three times before Microsoft Office Word successfully opens the file:
Word cannot start the converter mswrd632

To resolve this issue, an affected user can unregister the mswrd632 converter by editing the registry as follows:
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Text Converters\Import\MSWord6.wpc
On the Edit menu, click Delete.
Click Yes.
Exit Registry Editor.
This change will effectively unregister the converter and disable it for third-party applications and for Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office will use its own text converters to open these kinds of files.
 
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