Uninstalling Word Viewer 97 Doesn't Restore WordPad Associations

ID: Q165910

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

If you install Word Viewer 97 and then uninstall it, after the uninstall, files that end in .doc will not be re-associated with Windows WordPad.

CAUSE

When you remove Word Viewer, the registry key that associates .doc files with an application is removed rather than re-associated with Windows WordPad.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use the following steps:

1. Start WordPad. 

   
   This will re-create the registry entry and re-associate .doc files with
   WordPad.
2. Double-click a file that has a .doc extension. 
   
   The Open With dialog box will be displayed.
3. Click WordPad as the application to open .doc files and enable the 
   "Always use this program to open this type of file" check box.
   
   The correct registry entry will be written and WordPad will be used to
   open all files with the .doc extension.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. 

Keywords          : kbsetup
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: December 17, 1998