Error: The last time you opened BasicSimple.dotx, it caused a serious error

Anonymous
2023-01-28T14:48:37+00:00

When I am typing in Word, I will hover the mouse over the toolbar and spin the wheel and as it goes back to the right toolbar (Home for example from view) I get this error: Error: "The last time you opened BasicSimple.dotx, it caused a serious error. Do you still want to open it?"

I do not understand why it keep popping up only when i spin the scroll wheel when i am trying to switch between toolbar menus. Any advice?

Moderator's note: BasicSimple.dotx is a built-in [Quick] Style Set.

[Quick] Style Sets and Word Themes in Microsoft Word

[Quick] Style Sets

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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Anonymous
2023-07-24T15:55:25+00:00

Can you please give me a step by step description of what you did. I am the one who created this thread and so far nothing I have tried or seen here has worked. I still get the same error.

Hi sidscrat,

Your Normal.dotm file should be at this locaition: C:\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates.

Rename Normal.dotm to Normal.dotm_old or something similar. After that, restart the computer.

That process seemed to fix the issue for some of us.

James

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-02-14T19:52:02+00:00

    No it had no effect. I really wonder if this is the result of a recent update to Word. My wife is having the same issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-02-14T20:01:45+00:00

    I am not able to replicate the issue now. In our case, it is not caused by scrolling the wheel. It is happening to multiple documents and when it does it, it doesn't stop at BasicSimple.dotx, we also get follow up windows for BWCapitalized.dotx, BWNumbered.dotx, Word2013BW.dotx, Casual.dotx, & Centered.dotx.

    The only thing that is similar in all cases, is the files are synced to SharePoint.

    We've looked at the Com Add-ins and the Startup folder. We ran an Online Repair yesterday, but the problem persisted. I'll try and delete the Normal folder and report back tomorrow.

    I don't want to hijack this thread, but I think the error is similar enough that I'll post some of my findings here as they come up.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-02-14T20:27:05+00:00

    Thanks for the clarification. Indeed, making specific changes by following specific steps is of course OK. :-)

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-28T04:11:00+00:00

    I have encountered same series of error messages due to the same behaviour; that is scrolling the mouse wheel with my point over the tool bars. More problematic, doesn't always occur. It has hapeneed on documents on SharePoint and locally saved and I was also able to make this happen with a new empty document. However, now I can't make it happen and haven't changed anything other than restrarting word. Checking the word start up folder (...\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\Startup) there are no files.

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