Office XP Problem: Text File Stops Responding at Initialization

Have you ever experienced that when you open text file through your Microsoft Word in Windows XP operating system, a program seems to hang before it opens or may appear to stop responding at all?

If positive, you are suffering from the known problem that is affecting the MS Word files operation in this Operating System. We will offer you the basic action plan to troubleshoot the listed annoyance.

Turn OFF file indexing on the drive(s), where you are trying to open files. In "My Computer" right click on the drive and select "Properties". UNCHECK "Allow indexing service xxxxx". In most cases, this simple operation will resolve your issues.

If the problem will not go away, most likely, it is related to the recent history folder of Windows. This problem might appear on different machines with different hardware but all with Office XP and Windows XP (with default settings). Note that the symptoms might be slightly different on different computers. There are two known solutions to resolve the issue:

1) Temporary solution: Delete all files in the following folder.
C:’Documents and Settings’(Your User Name goes Here)’Application
Data’Microsoft’Office’Recent.

If the temporary solution resolves your issue, you can follow up to perform the permanent solution, presented below.

2) Permanent solution: Disable the recent history.

* Access the registry through built-in registry editor regedit, or any other third-party registry editor, available on the market.

* Backup your registry first (export to file at the predetermined location). Every registry operation, especially by inexperienced user might be a threat to the system functionality. If something goes wrong, you can always restore the initial registry status by loading the backup registry patch.

* Open your registry and find the following key in the HKCU registry branch.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER’Software’Microsoft’Windows’CurrentVersion’Policies’Explorer].

* Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value called ’NoRecentDocsHistory’. Set the value to equal ’1’ to enable the restriction.
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction).

* Open the registry and find the following key in the HKLM branch.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE’Software’Microsoft’Windows’CurrentVersion’Policies’Explorer].

* Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value called ’NoRecentDocsHistory’. Set the value to equal ’1’ to enable the restriction.
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction).

Sources and additional information:
http://www.compu-help.us/215.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833041
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313937