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

Anonymous
2013-09-11T14:30:26+00:00

My saved word documents no longer have the W icon but rather an orange icon that I can't open.  Spent 10 mins phoning Microsoft at great expense.  No answer Any help?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2013-09-12T10:58:51+00:00

Please try to uninstall Microsoft office 2010 from program list in Programs and features. It will appear there with most recent date of installation. After uninstall of that application, Microsoft office 2010 Starter should work as before the update.

*This will not uninstall your office starter

Detailed steps:

  1. Click Start, then click Uninstall program if you cannot see it click “Programs and features”
  2. Click Control Panel
  3. Click “Uninstall program” if you do not see it click “Programs and features”
  4. On the program list locate “Microsoft office 2010” not “Microsoft office 2010 Starter”
  5. Right click Microsoft office 2010 and click on uninstall option
  6. When uninstall finishes restart windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-09-17T19:47:30+00:00

    Thank you for putting together the explanations and proposed resolutions for the various problems that have been surfacing. Your article is concise, specific and I have no doubt that it will help others to rescue their systems. I've recommended it and will be referring new posts there.

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  2. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-09-17T19:17:21+00:00

    Having read all the posts in this thread and numerous others on the same subject, I have posted a Discussion at

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/officeversion_other-word/unable-to-open-word-files-after-september-2013/6c2541ca-1ba8-4166-9ad5-70876e5715a7?tm=1379444703586 in which I've attempted to summarize what works and what doesn't.

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-09-17T12:11:45+00:00

    I can't confirm this, but others have reported that using "Microsoft Application Virtualization DDE Launcher" works for Excel Starter files.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-09-17T06:08:33+00:00

    If i tell excel to open with the Microsoft client virtualization handler the icon turns a weird gray color and will not open.

    If I tell it to open with the Microsoft application virtualization  DDE launcher the excel icon returns to normal, when I double click the icon I get an error that says " there was a problem sending the command to this program" if I double click it again anyway it opens the excel file.

    Others have stated that all they did was tell it to open with the microsoft client virtualization handler, but thats not working for me. I'm using windows 7

    Microsoft client virtualization handler does however make the word program work normally.

    Will microsoft release a patch to fix this problem they have caused??????? I'm seriously annoyed that they allowed this patch to go out with out consideration as to how it would effect computers running office starter. Was I just supposed to buy office 2010 to solve the problem microsoft really?????????

    Good evening,

    I have successfully utilized browsing to change which program opens the office word files. But it did not work for the Excel files. So I tried to use the shortcut method for the  Excel files, This did not work either.****??

    Nothing happens when I try to open my excel file with either the shortcut method, and or if I browse to where the starter file is in the directory "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Virtualization Handler\CVH.EXE" "Microsoft Excel Starter 2010 9014006604090000"

    Is there is an actual Microsoft fix for this?

    I would hate to remove the Office 2010, as I have seen others have had problems with this.

    But I have already changed the office excel starter to open with this Microsoft client virtualization handler.

    **Any other suggestions for excel files.**Now that I have changed it to open with Microsoft Virtuization handler, I fear that uninstalling Office 2010 or the other fixes will not allow me to open excel files at all.

    Thanks for any help on this.

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