Why can't I open microsoft office documents?

I have many office documents on my computer (word, excel, power point) and up until now I have had no problems with any of them. When I try to open a document the program starts to open and then freezes. Sometimes if I leave it the program will open after 30 mins or so. I have tried installing the service packs, uninstalling and reinstalling, and I tried upgrading to office 2007. I even tried deleting all the documents. The program opened and I made/saved a new document. When I tired to open it the same thing still happened. I have no idea what else to do. Can someone please help me out here? Should I reinstall the operating system? If so.. how? I am using XP.

If you have a legal copy of M$-Office, un-install it and re-boot. Then, re-install it.

If you DON'T have a legal copy of M$-Office, un-install it and re-boot. Then, get Open Office, free from:

If still stuck, you have lots of malware.

TIP: Nobody has the right, or the need, to "pirate" Microsoft software. There are always great free alternatives.

After that much investigation, suspect your antivirus software. Disconnect from the Internet, disable the AV, and try opening a document. Just maybe....

I don't know, good questions though. Our Word programs have been running very slow too. Takes forever to open. And after you run a Word program, everything else on the computer runs slow, so we restart it. I'd be interested in knowing what useful answers you get, since we have a simliar problem.

find a saved doc on your computer, one you know worked fine. Right click on it and "open with" word.

I bet your normal.dot file is corrupt and you need to create another.

When word does open, open a blank doc up and save as;
file\save as\ and call it normal and select .dot for the extension. Overwrite, yes.