Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Rinnt
RinntFlag for United States of America

asked on

User cannot open random Word documents on terminal server

I'm not sure if this is better to be in the Word forum or the terminal server one.  I'll start here =)

Server: Windows 2000 Terminal server running Citirx 1.8 Metaframe.  For some reason a user will try to open random Word XP (2002) and receives the following message:

The selected text converter is an old version which does not work with the curent version of Word.  Reinstall the converter and try again

I'm at a loss here as it only appears to affecte one user.  I've tried opening the documents as administrator but that still producecs the error.  I tried deleting and rebuilding the user profile, but that did not work either.  What is going on here????  No changes have been made to the server that I am aware of.  Has the user contracted a virus?
Avatar of Anne Troy
Anne Troy
Flag of United States of America image

This person seems to have run across a similar issue:
http://www.forum4designers.com/message109984.html

You have all service packs?
Oh...and you're sure the person's PC doesn't still have a rogue winword.exe from 97 or something, right?
I mean, "random" could mean the ones they double-click as opposed to the ones they File-Open...
Shot in dark.
Avatar of Rinnt

ASKER

I'll have to check this out next week since the day is pretty much done...

Do you think that link you posted still applies even though the packages are different? I came across that link too during a google but disregarded since this is Office XP w/Windows 2K.  

I'll check the SPs next week - should be fine though.  Another note:  I tried opening the docs w/OpenOffice.  Usually there is no problem.  However, this these documents that give errors come up all scambled.  It's like the files are being corrupted by the user or something...
While the exact fix might not be the same, the issue certainly could be.
Avatar of Rinnt

ASKER

Service packs looks good... I took a closer look at that link and it appears the OP has an issue with saving HTML docs not just opening them.  I tried renaming the html32.cnv and confirming that the patch for html32.cnv exploit was installed... Still get the error.  

I could try to find an older version of the file, but it may be a waste of time since this doesn't appear to concern HTML.  Checked the W2K CD and it's in the <filename>.CN_ format.  So probably the only way to uncompress that format is to do an install?

What do you mean by rouge winword.exe?  As in the file was overwritten somehow?  Would that be reflected in the file date/time stamps?  If so, it's not the issue since it has dates back to 2002...

Either the problem is spreading or the user is opening/corrupting more files on the network: more people are getting the problem.
Avatar of Rinnt

ASKER

UPDATE

I went to the original workstation to open the document locally.  However, instead of only getting the converter error, I was given the option to install the correct converter.  After installing the converter and opening the document sucessfully I found that the document had been saved in Word perfect 5.1 format.  How this happend I do not know.  My only theory is that the user some how started saving in this format on a certain day.  All documents modified on that day were therefore in WP5 format.  Is this a possability?  Any other ideas?  It would be nice to rule out that it was some type of rogue exe or virus, but that may not be possible...
Of course it's a possibility.
Tools-Options, Save tab. Check out the options for default formats...

rogue exe: I meant that maybe an older version of Word had been on the PC and never removed
Avatar of Rinnt

ASKER

Well, went to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EC563DEE-6BFB-431D-B39E-2D672C0C223F&displaylang=en

so I could download the Office XP WordPerfect 5.x Converter Security Patch (KB824938).  After applying it and deleting some *.tmp files that accumulated in the user's directory everything works!
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of modulo
modulo

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial