winword.exe - what's the deal ?

Winword.exe is Office Word.

It can be opened if you're using Outlook or Microsoft Office Word.

You can disable it within Outlook if you want but I'd recommend using it just for the features of Word and writing/reading emails.

Every time you open word you get a new "instance" which is what you're seeing.

I don't believe the newer version of Office does this.. you might be on Office XP?

Outlook opens its own version. Word will open its own version for each document opened.

Though, sometimes it doesn't always close down. End-task or Kill each one and see what you lose. When you open Outlook it'll re-open the instance it needs.

Also, typing "winword" in the Run command will start Word for you.

I think the new version of Office opens one version and all instances stay in that.. but I'm not sure offhand. I'd have to check.

thanks again

I'm using Office 2003 SP2

And as I'm typing this, there a 3 instances of winword.exe running (plus outlook.exe).

Only Outlook is actually running.

Seem alot better than the 10 or so instances I had running at one point before - but still a bit worrying....?

swayzak

Download this::Process Explorer
Once downloaded, go to the download folder and extract,, than Execute procexp.exe, ,than go and view the process in task manager with more detailed view. Most satisfying thing is knowing what is using what.

I'm thinking you've got a mass-emailing worm. I know at one time with Office, you could use MS Word as your email editor... if that's the case, then it would explain why you've got so many instances of winword.exe... one instance for every email being sent from your computer.

Thanks - but this is a network work PC so no option there.

Arrgghhhh....


And here's the (predictable) result of manually ending all those winwords:




:x

www.safer-networking.org

Download Spybot Search and Destroy.

Update it. Immunize, check for problems.

It might not be a virus but spyware doing it.

Go into C:\Doc and settings\your username\somethingsomething\templates


Do a search for "Normal.dot" - It will be a Word document. It should be under a templates folder.

Close all instances of Word.

Delete Normal.dot

Test it out.

That should resolve your issue. The .dot is a template, it holds what your basic view of Word looks like. You can create, file - save as - document template, normal.dot in the location if you want to make another.

Good to hear... Any chance you can say what the program at work is? That is, if its a main stream program that would likely show up elsewhere?

I am having what appears to be the same issue (20-30 instances of winword.exe opening spontaneously in the task manager, hogging memory). I really need to know what software you found to be causing the issue if possible. I work at a company, which writes software for our imaging flow cytometer, and I am wondering whether something we bundle into our software is causing this issue on my machine or if it is something else I have downloaded in the past. No reports of this behavior have come up from anyone else in our company or our customers, and I have already tried reinstalling office 2003, which did not seem to fix the issue Our IT guy has already charged us a fortune working on my machine and failed to figure the issue out.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks