My amnesiac Word

[Albédo]

Hello.
I've been using the French version of Word 2002 for a few
years, and suddenly the program can't seem to remember my
personal, user-defined settings (such as "Always make a
back-up copy every x minutes", etc.). I mean, it may keep
those settings for some time, like as long as I don't leave
Windows and reboot, but if I do and then relaunch Word, all
my settings have been lost.
I asked for help on French forums, but no-one really seems
to know how to help me out (except for recording some macro
and launching it each time I find Word has gone amnesiac).
I keep antispyware programs and such up-to-date, so the
problem must lie within Word (and/or XP) itself.
I uninstalled 2002 using ork.exe, and installed Word 2003...
but it's still the same, unfortunately. :-(
I'd be utterly grateful to anyone who'd have heard of such a
strange behavior on the part of Word...and of course would
let me know how to repair this.
Thanks in advance.
a.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

This sounds like a corrupt data key.
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/datakeysettingscontent.htm
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
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This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
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from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Albédo]

"Charles Kenyon" :
| This sounds like a corrupt data key.
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/datakeysettingscontent.htm

Thanks, Charles. I'll read it all, try something if I can,
and be back.

a.

 

[Albédo]

Well, I exported and erased the "Options" registry key so
that Word would have to re-create it, and entered my
personal settings, and it seemed to work...until I found it
hadn't after all: Word is amnesiac again. :-(
a.

 

[Albédo]

Got it!
After getting my hands quite dirty, I finally found that IE
Privacy Keeper little bastard of a software, where a tab
lets you erase the recently opened files for a number of
programs, including MS Office. Beside the checkbox is a
little "Configure" thing which reads : "You may lose some of
the MS Word settings after performing the cleanup. (...)
Once you click Next, IE Privacy Keeper will empty the MS
Word's recent files list. Some of the MS Word settings will
also be
reset."
This relates to the following, as read in a FAQ for Word :
"Regrettably, the missing menus problem [the same page also
answers the "Word doesn't retain my settings (or my
recently-used files list) when I quit and go back in."
problem, that is *my* problem] is a hardy perennial in Word,
Missing menus hasn't been fixed
for several versions now, and that's because nobody can
discover quite how it happens. Sure, sometimes it's user
error; and sometimes it's some toxic "internet helper" or
add-in, or "improvement" or "haxie" or "explorer bar" or the
like that you download. But sometimes, it just "happens",
and we have no idea why..."
Thanks to anyone who bothered to read and/or help me out.
a.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

That's hilarious. "Sure," said the surgeon. "I can take out your appendix.
But, I sometimes remove a couple of fingers, part of your brain, and your
kneecaps." I'd say that your epithet about sums it up.