Member Avatar for getrid

Hi,
I run Win XP home Edition.
I use outlook v 6 for some emails. I get sent many word doc documents as attachments. When I click on an attachment in outlook, wordpad opens them, and I prefer that they be opened in Ms Word. tried to correct the problem on my own, but wordpad still prevails. Deleted wordpad.exe and still wordpad opens the attachments. What can I do to remedy the problem? Thanks in anticipation.

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A couple of practical points that build on ’s quick suggestion and explain why deleting WordPad didn’t stop it from opening attachments.

First, the real fix is to correct the system file association for .DOC so Windows (and therefore Outlook) knows to launch Word. Use Windows Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types, find the DOC type (or "Microsoft Word Document"), choose Change and point it to Word’s winword.exe in your Office folder. If saved .doc files open in Word after that but attachments still open in WordPad, the problem is usually Outlook’s temporary attachment cache rather than the association itself.

Second, Outlook extracts attachments to a temp folder when you open them. Close Outlook, then use Regedit to search for the key name OutlookSecureTempFolder (to find the temp path), and delete the files inside that folder (not the registry key). Restart Outlook — it will recreate the temp folder and use the updated .doc association. Back up the registry before editing and only delete the temp files.

If problems persist: run a Microsoft Office Repair (Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Change -> Repair) and restore any removed system files with System File Checker (sfc /scannow) if required. Do not manually delete system executables like wordpad.exe — Windows can have multiple launch points and removing one copy doesn’t fix the underlying association. After making changes, reboot and test by opening a saved .doc and then an attachment from Outlook.

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Member Avatar for CodyH

Hi getrid,

Save the attachment to your desktop, right click the file, select open with..., highlight Microsoft Word and then at the bottom of the box select "Always user this program"
Voila :)

Member Avatar for getrid

Hi there,
Thanks for the response. I have been opening attachements from the desk top, and I'll try what you suggest.
Thanks,
Rick

Member Avatar for CodyH

Hey getrid,

You don't have to do it from the desktop every time now, just the one time to make the fix of always opening with Word. Now you can open them from the email itself :)

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