Windows 10: How to open DOC/X files in older version of Word

Hello

For the past few years, my Windows opened a DOC/X file in Word 2003 instead of e.g. Word 2016 (when I double-clicked a DOC/X file). Every 2-3 weeks Windows would change the file association of DOC/X files to Word 2016, but when I run Word 2003 manually (or use Detect and Repair), the file associations would change to Word 2003 again.

Today, however, this no longer works. When I run Word 2003, it runs fine (and appears to work fine) but I get an error message "Microsoft Office Word 11.0 - An error occurred and this feature is no longer functioning properly. Please run Setup and select "Repair..." to restore this application.". Repairing (and reinstalling) Word 2003 doesn't progress past about the halfway mark and then the repair/reinstall dialog mysteriously exits. Also, when I try to use Detect and Repair, Malwarebytes tells me there's malware in the TEMP folder (but disabling Malwarebytes doesn't make the repair process work). I also tried disabling the Office Source Engine service.

There is a registry hack for disabling the error message, but what I really want is for DOC/X files to open in Word 2003.

This brings me to ask a question that I have had for over a decade: how to convince Windows that I want to open DOC/X files in Word 2003, not Word 2016. I recall having a similar problem with Adobe Acrobat Reader many years ago -- I had both version 5 and version 6 installed, and try as I might I was unable to get Windows to use version 5 for PDF files, and I always had to run version 5 manually and open files using drag-an-drop (as I'm now forced to do with DOC/X files).

Either, do you know what causes this error message, or: do you know of surefire way to make DOC/X files open in Word 2003 (and uninstalling Word 2016 is not an option, because I need it for 1% of documents).

Thanks
Samuel

(Using Windows 10 Home)

:)

 

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Thank you so much for your reply!

To clarify, the problem is that whenever I try to open another word doc in file explorer in a second desktop it goes back to the desktop in which there already is a word doc open and opens the requested doc there, instead of in the second desktop.

I have tried the repair and it did not help. Any other suggestions?

Cindy