A couple more thoughts... * if Word opens fine when you use the /a switch SOMETHING IS being added in that is causing a problem. Period. The /a switch means, don't load addins. You just haven't found what is being added in. * Do you use Adobe? That addin has to be removed via the Control Panel. Check your Word Startup folder to see what is in there, those are addins, if any. Since you're stopping the addins, you can't check the addins menu now to find others. * Also, if you're using SnagIt...older version...there was a bug that would not release programs. So if you ever installed Snagit before and accepted the default install that included Word and PPT addins, you have to go to the SnagIt (TechSmith) folder and remove the Word plugin by doing a reinstall of Snagit and choose to NOT install the Word addin. * There may be other programs you have that have stealth addins, you'll have to figure out what other programs you might have ever used in conjunction with Word that may be causing the problem. Finally, know that first, you should never DELETE the normal.dots you find, just rename them to normal.old or even normal.crapola if you want. But deleting them would mean you would have to redo all/any styles/toolbars, etc that you could have easily passed over once the problem was fixed. Second, if you did delete ALL normal.dots, then Word MUST create a fresh normal.dot when it opens...whether you save anything to it or not. Word CANNOT operate without a normal.dot default file and there's no way to stop one from being created if none is found because that coding is in Word's master architecture code that is locked by Microsoft. So it IS there, you just can't see it...most likely because you are either mistaken or don't have your files being shown completely. Good luck... Dian D. Chapman Technical Consultant & Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified Instructor, Editor/TechTrax Ezine, Technical Editor/Word & Office 2007 Bibles https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Dian.Chapman Dian's Soldiers' Site http://www.mousetrax.com/Angels Free Word Tricks eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html Free Computer Tutorials: http://www.techtrax.us -----Original Message----- From: mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mso-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Smart Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 2:56 PM To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [mso] Re: normal.dot won't recreate itself. A few thoughts ... When you did the search for Normal.dot, did you turn on "Search system folders" and "Search hidden files and folders"? If not, then give it another go with these selected. Was the date/time of either of the Normal.dot's that you found very recent, or were they old? (If old, then they would either not be the active one, or would indicate that they weren't the cause of your trouble.) If one was recent and one was old, try copying the old one into the place where the recent one was (replacing the recent one). Have you emptied all your Temp folders? Office tends to be sensitive to large numbers of files in Temp. Regards, Dave S ----- Original Message ----- From: "Intelligence Corporate Services Ltd." <information@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:36 PM Subject: [mso] normal.dot won't recreate itself. > Dear Linda, > Firstly, many thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer me > - I am tearing my hair out at the moment! > > I have thoroughly read the Word Troubleshooting tutorial on your > personal tutor website (it was very clear and user-friendly; thank you), > but here's the thing .... Word (I have Word 2003) has been slowing down > on my computer for some time. Yesterday morning it started refusing to > save changes to documents; in fact closing any document brought up the > 'Microsoft Word has encountered a problem and needs to close' message. > It just crashed on exiting every time, (and 'Word is not responding' > came up when it tried to rescue save my work). As of this morning this > happens when trying to even open Word. I followed your tutorial (and > did a full virus scan with Avast and a defrag, possibly irrelevantly), > and while Word will open fine if I run 'winword.exe /a' as suggested, no > new normal.dot template comes into existence! I deleted the normal.dot > (I had two) items I found when I searched for them and now no new one > gets made when I launch Word. What's that all about? I have Googled > and so on all day and night and found no solution. > > There were no Add-Ins. I tried deleting the Data folder in the registry > key - No effect. I did Detect and Repair - No effect. I will only > uninstall and reinstall if absolutely necessary and if I think it will > actually work. Since Word is launching fine from 'winword.exe /a' will > uninstalling and reinstalling even work? I have a hell of a lot of work > on my computer (though not more than it's capable of handling), and > Excel etc. are fine so I'm afraid to wipe Office out. Do you know what > might be happening here and if uninstalling is the way to go? > > Warm regards, > > Katherine Duke > > > ************************************************************* > You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or > MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > To Unsubscribe from this group, visit the group's homepage and use the > dropdown menu at the top. This will allow you to unsubscribe your email > address or change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). > //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso > > To be able to share files with the group, you must join our Yahoo sister > group. This group will not allow for posting of emails, but will allow > you to join and share problem files, templates, etc.: > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MicrosoftOffice . This group is for > FILE SHARING ONLY. > > If you are using Outlook and you see a lot of unnecessary code in your > email messages, read these instructions that explain why and how to fix > it: > http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/greg28.htm > ************************************************************* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.435 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2684 - Release Date: 02/12/10 19:35:00 ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu at the top. This will allow you to unsubscribe your email address or change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to share files with the group, you must join our Yahoo sister group. This group will not allow for posting of emails, but will allow you to join and share problem files, templates, etc.: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MicrosoftOffice . This group is for FILE SHARING ONLY. If you are using Outlook and you see a lot of unnecessary code in your email messages, read these instructions that explain why and how to fix it: http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/greg28.htm ************************************************************* ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu at the top. This will allow you to unsubscribe your email address or change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to share files with the group, you must join our Yahoo sister group. This group will not allow for posting of emails, but will allow you to join and share problem files, templates, etc.: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MicrosoftOffice . This group is for FILE SHARING ONLY. If you are using Outlook and you see a lot of unnecessary code in your email messages, read these instructions that explain why and how to fix it: http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/greg28.htm *************************************************************