Windows 7 – Microsoft Word restores all open documents when clicking on a .DOC file

I tend to have a few Word documents that I keep open all the time, with notes for a long-running project. Normally they are all minimized.

The problem is that when I click on a different .doc or .docx file in Windows Explorer, even though the new document opens in its own window, the other, minimized Word documents get restored, too. Now I have several restored windows that I wanted to keep minimized.

I started noticing this problem on Windows 7, but I’m not sure if it’s unique to Windows 7. I’m using Word 2007.

Solution:

You can fix this problem by blocking Word from using DDE to open files.

In the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTWord.Document.12shellOpen key:

• Delete or rename the ddeexec sub-key

In the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTWord.Document.12shellOpencommand key:

• Delete or rename the command value (not to be confused with the command key.)
• Edit the (Default) value and add "%1" (including quotes) at the end

This solves the problem for .docx files. If you also want to solve it for .doc files, do the same thing for Word.Document.8

Thanks to: Rafael’s Within Windows which has detailed instructions.