Page Fault in KERNEL32.DLL When You Open or Create a Document (146059)

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Office Shortcut Bar or the Start menu to open or to create a Word document, you receive the following message:

This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

If you click Details, you receive an error message similar to the following:

MSOW caused an invalid page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL at 0137:bff782ae.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you do either of the following:

You click Open Office Document or New Office Document on the Start menu, and you then select a Word document.

-or-
You click Open A Document or Start A New Document on the Office Shortcut Bar, and you create a new Word document.

This behavior occurs after you install any program that inserts a complex DDEExec command in the following entries in the registry:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Word.Backup\Shell\Open\DDEEXEC

-or-

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Word.Backup\Shell\New\DDEEXEC

Several programs, including the Microsoft Macro Virus Protection tool (also called the Scanprot template), modify the DDEEXEC entry in the registry.

RESOLUTION

To correct the problem that occurs when you use the Start menu or the Office Shortcut Bar to open a document or to create a new document, do the following:

Open Windows Explorer. Locate and double-click the Winword7.reg file to re-register Word.
Start Word.
Click Open A Document or Start A New Document on the Office Shortcut Bar. This resets the application settings in the Office Shortcut Bar.
Close Word.

You can now choose Open A Document or Start A New Document on the Office Shortcut Bar.

WORKAROUND

You can work around the problem that occurs when you use the Start menu or the Office Shortcut Bar to open a document; however, no workaround exists for when you create a new Word document. Instead you must create a new Word document from within Word.

To create a new Word document, do the following:

Start Word.
On the File menu, click New, and then double-click a template.

To work around the problem that occurs when you open a document, use the following steps:

Click the Start button, point to Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.
On the View menu, click Options, and then click the File Types tab.
Under Registered File Types, click Microsoft Word Document, and then click Edit.
In the Edit File Type dialog box under Actions, click Open, and then click Edit.
Delete the complex command in the DDE Message box and type the following text:
[FileOpen("%1")]
Click OK.
Click Close, and then click Close again to close the Options dialog box.

NOTE: Word may not run when you open a Word document after you use this workaround, and the following message may appear:

Word cannot open the document. (<Folder Location>)

If you click OK, the following message appears:

The document name or path is not valid. (<Folder Location><Document Name>).

If you click OK again, the document opens successfully.

MORE INFORMATION

The problem occurs when you use the Office Shortcut Bar or the Start menu to open or to create a new document. The Msow.exe module controls the Open and New commands on the Office Shortcut Bar and the Start menu; however, the Msow.exe does not understand the complex DDEExec message that is written in the registry.

For additional information regarding the Microsoft Macro Virus Protection tool, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

134728 AppNote: "Macro Virus Protection Tool" (WD1215)

You can successfully open a Word document by using either of the following methods:

Click the Start button, point to Documents, and then double-click a recently-used document.

-or-
Start Word, and on the File menu, click Open.

A complex DDEExec command is a DDEExec command for FileOpen or FileNew that contains If...Then...Else statements. The following command is the default FileNew DDEExec command:

[FileNew("%1")]