Windows 10: Word files changed to Wordpad DOC files that I now cannot open and the new, awful "New...

All my Word documents were changed without permission to Wordpad and are now considered DOC files which makes all my Word documents unretrievable. I thought upgrading to Windows 11 might help, but provided no relief. There is no "Run" option on the Start taskbar. How do I convert all these DOC files back to Word. I also have Microsoft 365 which was supposed to include Word. Please, help needed immediately as I cannot access any of my Word documents that I need to use daily!Also, Microsoft converted my Outlook to the "New Outlook" back in December, again without my knowledge or permission. T

:)

 

word to wordpad

The Word documents are showing up as .doc rather than .docx. I followed your suggestion, but when I tried to open the document I got the same song and dance from Microsoft, specifically, "Buy Microsoft Word". There must be some way out of this dilemma. Microsoft has hijacked all my documents and is holding them for ransom.

 

Suddenly I cannot open a new wordpad doc.

Then when your search finds WordPad - App, right-click that and Pin to Start or Pin to Taskbar. That should open Wordpad to a new blank document. No need to hit File > New.

Don

 

word to wordpad

It seems quite common these days that new PCs come with Word as the default association for documents as a 'advert' to try and get you to buy Word. It is easy to change the default association to Wordpad.

Wordpad files will not allow write permission.