Set the Default Program (Word 2003 or Word 2007) to Open .DOC Documents

On your machine with both word 2003 and word 2007 installed, the most recently installed version gets the default file type.

You can change the sequence as follows:

To set Word 2003 as the default, open Word 2003. Click on Help and then Detect and Repair.

To set Word 2007 as the default, open Word 2007. Click on Office button -> Word Options -> Resources -> Diagnose.

This entry was posted on October 19, 2008 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Microsoft Office. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

13 Responses to “Set the Default Program (Word 2003 or Word 2007) to Open .DOC Documents”

Scott Stanley Says:
November 4, 2008 at 12:51 am | Reply
What a perfect response. This worked so well, and I was getting frustrated finding a way to do this. Thank you!
Satish Chandra Says:
January 18, 2009 at 8:54 pm | Reply
What a nifty solution! Great!! It sure takes care of my frustrations.
aaas Says:
February 22, 2009 at 6:11 am | Reply
“Set the Default Program (Word 2003 or Word 2007”
that’s EXACTLY what I was looking for and it works great.
2007 was pre-installed ; then i installed 2003 again ,but docs -still- kept defalting to 2007 . God I HATE word2007 (same as Vista) so now i’ve got word2003 back as a default i had to say a big THANK YOU ! you saved me from going insane !
Calvin Says:
June 23, 2009 at 10:15 am | Reply
But after setting 2003 as the default, if 2007 is opened, it will become default again…… How can we stop this?
Mia Says:
March 19, 2010 at 6:08 pm | Reply
That was exactly what I was looking for…
I’m gonna bookmark this page and look for answers here right away next time before wasting time trying to retrace the microsoft guy’s logic.
Thanx a lot!
Leo Lee Says:
May 11, 2010 at 8:05 pm | Reply
This is what I am exactly looking for!
What a perfect solution.. you save my googling “good” solution which dosnt address to my problem!

Thank You!
Lim Says:
July 26, 2011 at 5:58 pm | Reply
Good Solution!

Thanks!
Sue Ness Says:
September 13, 2011 at 11:34 am | Reply
Thank you for your help, I have finally got use to word 2007 and don’t want to go back to the old version. I had to install 2003 as my publisher never worked on 2007 version.
Bhavin Says:
November 15, 2011 at 3:04 pm | Reply
It works. Thank you.
Jenny Says:
October 23, 2012 at 3:51 pm | Reply
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N Karthik Says:
December 7, 2012 at 6:12 pm | Reply
great ya.. its working
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July 26, 2013 at 8:32 pm | Reply
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File Association Dilemma in Vista [ANSWERED] - Tech ABC to XYZ Says:
March 14, 2016 at 1:16 pm | Reply
[…] to this it seems you can restore file associations by going to Help -> Detect and Repair in Office […]