DOC Files Tools and Tips
A document file with the .doc extension is the most widely popular and commonly used document format at present. It has been developed constantly by Microsoft as their standard word processing format found in their Word application among Microsoft Office’s list of programs.
Microsoft has used the .doc file with its main word processing program MS Word for many years now. Just recently, with the launch of their Office 2007 and 2008 versions, Microsoft has switched to using another file extension in the form of the .docx for their Word 2007 application. Documents created with earlier versions of Word can still be opened using the 2007 format provided a compatibility pack is downloaded and installed.
Despite .doc files being Microsoft’s standard word processing output file, many other programs are compatible with this and can easily do what MS Word does. These programs can also open, create, edit and run this format. Examples of these are the:
• Open Office Writer; and
• AbiWord.
Word Viewer 2003 from Microsoft can also open all versions of .doc files up to version 2003 but it is limited to viewing, copying and printing documents. This means editing and creating documents are not included in its functions.
Problems with this file extension are of the usual computer file woes. These include infections from viruses or system configuration alterations done by spyware and other malware types. There are effective anti-malware applications used to eliminate all privacy security and system stability threats.
Effective anti-malware tools eliminate malicious programs but sometimes leave the entries and keys it injected into the System Registry. The System Registry data it had corrupted or damaged can also cause problems.
Registry cleaners may be able to help in these cases. These are programs that fix problems in the registry of the OS, a part of the computer that logs every action taken by the user. This part is more often filled up with junk and unwanted files. Leftovers from previous programs that have long been deleted or uninstalled may still reside here, making the machine run slow. The job of the registry cleaner is to check everything in the registry and ensure that common files are properly connected to each other and are associated right. This can fix the file association problems left by malware or spyware attack on .doc files so that they can be run again if they previously were inaccessible to the user.