My saved documents are no longer the W icons but orange icons that I can't open. Please help.

Thanks to the MS website I uninstalled 2010 Starter and not Office 2010. Any suggestions on how to get it back.  Thanks

Hi I'm the original person to post the question and though i'm glad lots of you are getting sorted out I'm not sorted! If I try to open a Word doc all I get is a Click-2-run configuration failure box. I may have jumped the gun by uninstalling Office 2000 Starter and can't re-install. There is now no link to Starter from the start menu. Please help me - this is now 3 / 4? days without being able to work. **** Microsoft.

Hi Paul

Same here, I had already un-installed Office Starter 2010 when I found this thread we are on now. I've also tried right clicking on a file and choosing "open with" then "Microsoft Client Virtualization Handler" and I'm also getting those "Click-2-run configuration failure" boxes pop up when I do that.

The first thing I did when all my word docs were changed to orange docx files was to un-install Office Starter 2010 - because that is what has fixed the problem in the past when I couldn't open word files, although they've never turned orange docx on me before!

I've always been able to easily re-install Office Starter 2010 using Office 2010 like it says to in a couple of posts throughout this thread. I have the following info, that I got off the web somewhere, saved in a "text document" notepad file so that when I can't open word documents I just follow these instructions - it has always worked in the past:

If Word Starter 2010 or Excel Starter 2010 cannot

be opened, uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Office

Starter 2010:

1. Click "Start" then "all programs" and make sure you

see Microsoft Office 2010 in the list of installed 

programs. You'll need to use this program later 

to reinstall Office Starter 2010 on the computer.

2. Open the "Control Pannel" and under "Programs" click on "Uninstall a program"

3. Click Microsoft Office Starter 2010, and then 

click Uninstall (or Remove in Windows XP).

4. Click Yes and follow the instructions to uninstall 

Office Starter 2010.

5. To reinstall Office Starter 2010, click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office 2010.

6. Click Use. See image.

7. And then click Open. This will re-install Office Starter 2010.

If the error continues to occur, you may have to do a full

restore of the computer to reinstall Microsoft Office Starter 2010.

We recommend you contact the computer manufacturer to talk

about your options before you do this.

BUT NOW when I follow these instructions the box in the image above is there BUT where it says "Use Office Starter 2010" NOW IT SAYS "Try Office free for a limited time" and where it says "Use" it now says "Try". So now I can't re-install Office Starter!! Those bastards!!!

When this happened on Fri morning I was desperately trying to find a job on the net so I can pay my months rent next week and not get evicted onto the streets. Then all of a sudden I can't access any of my resumes or cover letters or anything. So I was extremely stressed and close to tears when I rang the Microsoft support line on 132058 (I'm in Australia) and chose the "help" option, then a msg said they were experiencing a high number of calls at the moment and hung up on me! So I called back and instead chose the option to "activate a new product using the product key" or something like that and sure enough I got put through to a person instead of being hung up on automatically, well I certainly gave that poor man a piece of my mind! - After first apologising that I knew it wasn't his fault personally but he was the only person I could speak to from Microsoft to vent my frustrations. So he gave me a case # and put me through to the help line (he also suggested I use the trial version of Office in the meantime to access my resumes and other documents, he said it would work for 30 days).

After explaining my situation to the tech guy on the Microsoft Help Line I gave him remote access to my computer but EVEN HE COULDN'T FIX IT!!! He said I would need to get another Office Starter 2010 and the only place I can get one is from my computer manufacturer (Acer). He told me I may be able to d.load it from their website but he wasn't sure and to contact them and ask them. He said he will leave my case # open and call me back on Mon to see how I go at getting Office Starter from them. He also said "Acer will probably advise you to do a Factory Restore (something Acer has embedded in your laptop) but that will delete any programs you have d.loaded since owning the computer so you need to back-up your files first, before doing a Factory Restore" Well I don't have any free space on my external hard drive to back up my computer!

I couldn't be bothered trying to get Office Starter from Acer today since I wasted all of yesterday stuffing around with this problem that Microsoft so graciously dumped on me. So I'll give it a go tomorrow Paul and I'll let you know how I go mate.

But in the meantime - Yes, I agree F*** Microsoft. In fact I could fill a few pages with all the cursing and swearing I have done at them inside my head in the last 48 hrs but what would be the point? But jeeze i'll tell you what - it makes my blood boil.

PS. I have slowly and painfully learnt how to do what I need to do on computers over the years but apart from that I don't know much at all about them and as soon as people start using the slightest bit technical language I don't understand what they're saying at all.

Thanks for that lengthy reply and advice Luke. I still can't do anything though cos in frustration I've uninstalled Office 2010 aswell as Starter so I can't do anything. Really stuck now. Apart from this **** hope all is well in Aus which it is here in Scotland apart from the storm that's coming overnight!

And yes, ****, **** **** and **** **** Microsoft.

I am also very grateful.... A little concerning when switching on today following the windows updates but pleased to report that the orange icons have now reverted to the W Word icons and I am now able to open my documents again in word starter... similarily excel is now back to normal... all thanks to your advice.