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General discussion

There was a problem sending the command to the program

Mar 11, 2015 7:55AM PDT

Running Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition on Windows 7 64Bit Pro. All components have worked fine, but now, Word will not open past the splash screen. This can only be closed via Task Manager. The box that pops up, says; "There was a problem sending the command to the program". Clicking on a Word document has the same result as clicking on the desktop icon.

I am able to access Word by via "Run" command, typing "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE"/a

None of the solutions found on the internet so far, for this message, have worked, from repairs, fixes, re-installs etc. This does not appear to be a rare problem. It's time for an expert to tell me how to fix this.

Discussion is locked

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/a !!
Mar 11, 2015 8:08AM PDT
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dde
Mar 11, 2015 10:37AM PDT

I have seen that one posted for later versions. Woed 2000 does not give me that option, or at least, I can't find it. It is not under "options".

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(NT) Then the safe mode is your clue on what to do next.
Mar 11, 2015 10:52AM PDT
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safe mode
Mar 11, 2015 11:14AM PDT

Thanks I will look at it in safe mode in the morning. But, could you elaborate on just what I'm suppose to do in safe mode that I can't do otherwise?

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Sorry but safe mode tells us
Mar 11, 2015 12:19PM PDT

That it's some addon or change. You can wipe out all addons by uninstalling Word then deleting the folders it installs to. There are tomes on the web about more surgical methods but for here, I'll used the blunt instrument.
Bob

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Just remembered something.
Mar 11, 2015 12:45PM PDT

Office 2000 had serious issues without it's last Service Pack. Including what you reported.

But beyond that, here's a google about safe mode.
https://www.google.com/#q=word+2000+only+safe+mode+works

Try the usual normal.dot rename as well as the other notes.

Again, you are 15 years in the past so my memory on this is faint. But I remember the old normal.dot was a plague.
Bob

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Safe Mode
Mar 11, 2015 8:53PM PDT

Thanks Bob. While I had Word open in safe mode via the Run command, I created a new shortcut that gives me access again. I still don't know how to turn off DDE, but since it doesn't load in safe mode, I guess I'm back in business. I assume this procedure will work on Excel, if it acts up also.

Side Note: This is a new system build with Windows 7 64bit Pro (replacing a 7 year old Vista system). I was surprised that this antique version of Office would still work, but as with all the software I installed, (and there was a lot), it has. I had been up and running for 4 weeks with no problems, until this popped up. I am thankful there are people like you, who are patient and knowledgeable enough to rescue folks as myself, who get into trouble with their lack of knowledge and patience.
David

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Remembering that 2000 version.
Mar 12, 2015 1:14AM PDT

It's dusty but a fresh install does indeed fail on Windows 7. I recall it worked after updating with the Office 2000 Service Pack.

https://www.google.com/#q=office+2000+service+pack seems to find it.

--> Many folk get confused over Office service packs and Windows service packs. One is not the other.
Bob

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Service Packs
Mar 12, 2015 6:01AM PDT

I had tried to install the service packs (Office 2000) and always got a "The expected version of the product was not found on your system." message, no matter which one I tried to install. That was one thing that I thought for sure would solve the problem. Things like that, are what is the most frustrating in the pursuit of a solution.

What get's me most, is when something that is suppose to be so easy and done in 2 minutes, ends up taking hours to do, and many times it's one itsy bitsy item that I, myself have missed. It is also frustrating, and not just in the tech world, where experts assume in their instructions that everyone knows all the little details they leave out.

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This may need too many arcane steps.
Mar 12, 2015 6:06AM PDT

Such as installing Office Service Pack 1, then 2, etc.
Running the update in some "as Administrator."
And ejecting the antivirus and turning off the firewall.

It's that old an Office that I barely recall the gyrations to get it working.
Bob

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Took some searching.
Mar 12, 2015 6:33AM PDT
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/59270-63-installing-microsoft-office-2000-windows notes a SPECIAL SR update to get it to run on Windows 7 64 bit.

"I tried loading my Office 2000 Pro software onto the Vostro but found (as others have reported) that the base software will load and run, but the SR-1 patch via o2ksr1a.exe won't load. This can be overcome by downloading the patch software as O2KSR1aDL.EXE, extracting the files and running setup.exe from the extracted file set. SR-1 should then load for you and run."

-> I know some will flame everyone over the lack of documentation about this one but I barely recall the arcana.
Bob
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Nightmares
Mar 12, 2015 7:01PM PDT

Looks like that guy had a nightmare and wasn't getting good answers. We know Office 2000 will run on Win 7 64bit Pro. It did fine for 3 weeks and at least I have a work around to keep it going now, even if the service packs fail. I'll try again when I get time.

I never needed to upgrade because they never added anything useful to me and I'm not one to waste money I need more for other things. I get to do a lot of work in later versions anyways, and always hate the way they changed the toolbars for the sake of modernizing the look, but I do know, one day, I'll have to bite the bullet. It will finally run out of operating systems that will work with it.

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Re: nightmares
Mar 12, 2015 7:14PM PDT

Did you ever consider to switch from Office 2000 to LibreOffice? It's open source and free, the interface looks like MS Offfice 2003 or earlier (not like Office 2007 and later with the Ribbon) and - just in case somebody sends you a .docx file - it can read and edit those also.

It's exactly what people like you, who don't want to spent money, and realise that they can't go on to tell their friends and relations that they can't read .docx files, need!

Kees

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Of course it ran on that OS, but the OS changed!
Mar 13, 2015 1:54AM PDT

Let me reveal that some bits of Windows 7 (doesn't matter which one, 32, 64, etc.) were disabled as exploits were found in little used areas of this OS. The deprecation of some old APIs means that some apps will roll over and die.

Since Office 2000 is more than a decade old, no fixes will arrive to cater to later security changes in the host OS.

In fact, the service packs may vanish from Microsoft's own servers.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd873564%28v=office.12%29.aspx#section2

-> Some folk are blissfully unaware of what is going on in the OSes today. That is, folk are wanting every exploit patched over and have lost sight that it was a Personal Computer. Patching areas that are only exploitable by our own actions seems a bit much but as more "users" arrive the OS has to change to cater to the masses.

You write you may have to change so be sure to look at LibreOffice.
Bob