STFU && RTFM

If you have a problem opening Word documents from the Windows Explorer, the problem probably lies in how the document files are registered with the operating system. The first thing to try in correcting the problem is to unregister and reregister Word with Windows. From the command line, use the following command:
 
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\winword.exe" /unregserver
 
The quotes are necessary, but you may need to change the path so it reflects the location of the winword.exe file on your system. (You can use Windows’ Search tool to locate the path to the winword.exe file.) The /unregserver switch “unhooks” all the references to Word in the Windows Registry. You should then, immediately, use the following command:
 
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\winword.exe" /regserver
 
This command causes Word to rewrite all its Registry keys and to reassociate itself with document and template files.

Over the last year or so I’ve had at least fifteen users complain that when they double-click an Excel document in Windows Explorer, Excel opens, but no workbook. They then have to open the document manually in Excel.
 
Here’s how to resolve this problem:
 

1. Open excel, then open a blank workbook
2. Go to Tools -> Options -> General
3. Remove the check mark from the box marked “Ignore other applications”

I recently had a user call in with a problem; whenever she’d open a word-document, word would flash an error message, then to open in safe mode.
 
Normal.dot is the default template file in Microsoft Word. Because it contains a lot of customization settings, it is prone to corruption. Thus, many problems experienced while working in Microsoft Word can be attributed to this file. The most common fix is to force generate a new, clean version of this troublesome file. Here’s how:
 

1. Make sure Microsoft Word is not running
2. Click Start, then search
3. Enter normal.dot as the file you want to find, and specify that you want to search in system folders and for hidden files and folders
4. Click search
5. Rename or delete (your choice) each instance
6. Start Word

My employer is slowly but surely implementing Microsoft Office 2007. One of the errors we’ve encountered has been a fatal error. It seems to be caused by one of the following two things:
 

• Default printer driver has become corrupted.
• Normal template has become corrupted.

 
To fix this problem, try the following, in order:
 

1. Switch to a different default printer. If this fixes the issue, then you must delete and reinstall your original default printer.
2. Delete the Normal template.
   1. Windows XP: go to %userprofile%\application data\microsoft\templates and delete the normal.dot or normal.dotm file that is listed there.
   2. Windows Vista: go to %userprofile%\appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates and delete the normal.dot or normal.dotm that exists there.

 
One of those two methods should fix the issue. If it reoccurs then the problem could be related to an addin that continues to corrupt the normal template, as well as a problem with the installed software.