Multiple winword.exe process; Word 2007 crashes

[Logan]

Hello all, - Office 2007 Enterprise

Currently working with a client where we deployed/upgraded their existing
users from a mix of Office 2k/2k3 to 2007. Using the OCT we customized a
deployment and had everyone installed.

There are a few users who are randomly experiencing Word 2007 crashes. After
troubleshooting for about a week, we had it narrowed down to some issue
(multiple access) with the user's normal.dotm. My experience is when this is
being accessed by more than 1 user, or a separate process, it can lead to
complete instability of the application. Each user has their user's templates
specified to their personal drive on the network. Nobody is sharing, each
user has their own normal.dotm.

I had a user go through opening documents today, same documents, new
documents, etc. After a while I noticed on one document that it took a little
longer, so I checked her task manager and noticed a separate winword.exe
process. I let her work for a while, and sure enough - lockup/crash. We tried
to reopen the SAME documents but could not recreate this happening again. 10
docs open, 1 winword.exe process. It seems when there is a lockup, there are
2 winword.exe processes open.

I've checked the DDE stuff and registry keys, making sure .doc and .docx
should NOT opening or spawning a separate process.

Any thoughts anyone? It's driving me crazy...

 

[Terry Farrell]

I am totally confused by the second paragraph. I just don't follow it. What
is being accessed by more than one user? Everyone has their own normal.dotm
and they also have their own folder on the server for their templates. So is
normal.dotm on the server on their local drives? Unless you are running
Citrix or Terminal Services, the normal.dotm should always be installed on
the local hard drive in the users' template folders. But that still doesn't
explain what is being accessed by more than one user.

 

[Logan]

Thanks for the reply, let me try and clarify a little bit then.

I was trying to account for the fact that I know that the normal.dotm should
not be shared in anyway, or accessed by more than one user. However, I'm
unsure of how the normal.dotm reacts to being accessed by more than 1
winword.exe process.

-Each user has their own personal drive on the server (no other users
access...)
-Their user templates for Word is directed to that directory
\\server\users\%username%

There was no reference to the normal.dotm being accessed by more than user,
except explaining that the normal.dotm is NOT being accessed by more than one
user. I just wanted to let everyone know I've all ready accounted for that, I
apologize if that wasn't clear.

My main question though is the multiple access by a SEPARATE winword.exe
process on the user's machine. They randomly experience where a separate
winword.exe opens, works off the normal.dotm (that is being also accessed by
the other winword.exe process) thus producing a crash.

No TS, no Citrix. You mention that the normal.dotm should always be
installed on the locla hard drive in the users' template folders... But if I
have the option to change that path, why cant it reside where I would like
it? Whether I set that as C:\Templates or
\\server\users\%username%\templates?

So you're saying the normal.dotm on a network share (Personal drive), even
though there is only 1 user accessing it, should not be done and that I
should keep the normal.dotm in the %userprofile%\Application
data\Microsoft\Templates?