WD97: Open Dialog Box Displays Folders as Question Marks

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, you should first make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat). Both are hidden files in the Windows folder.

SYMPTOMS

When you click Open on the File menu, if the current directory has subfolders, all subfolders except the last may be displayed as question marks.

When you double-click any of the subfolders that appear as question marks, the following error message is shown:

   An unexpected error occurred  -  I/O Error 0

CAUSE

This problem is caused by corruption in the Windows 95 Registry of the Microsoft Word key that handles caching of the Open dialog box.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall Windows 95. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at the own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the Changing Keys And Values online Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). Note that you should make a backup copy of the registry files (System.dat and User.dat) before you edit the registry.

To work around this problem, reset the Open dialog box caching by using the following steps:

1. Quit Word 97 and all other open Windows applications.

2. On the Windows 95 Start menu, click Run.

3. In the Open box, type "RegEdit" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK.

4. In the registry, locate to the following registry key:

       HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Common\
       Open Find\Microsoft Word\Settings\Open\View\Data
   

5. Click to select the Data key, and then click Delete on the Edit menu.

   This key will be automatically rebuilt when you run Word.

6. On the Registry menu, click Exit.

   When you exit from the Registry, the changes will be saved automatically.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q161631
   TITLE     : WD97: How to Reset Word 97 MRU Lists

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.