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Can't launch Word when opening doc(x) attachments

Firefox just updated to add hello. Now when I try to open Word documents on various sites, I only get the option to open in Windows or to save the file. It used to just launch Word. I went into the settings and changed the application settings so that doc(x) documents are automatically opened in Word, but they still won't launch Word. Also, when I try to select a different application to launch the document, I can't find Word in the list of documents. I have had to move to GoogleChrome to restore my ability to launch documents correctly, but I much prefer Firefox. Any ideas?

Firefox just updated to add hello. Now when I try to open Word documents on various sites, I only get the option to open in Windows or to save the file. It used to just launch Word. I went into the settings and changed the application settings so that doc(x) documents are automatically opened in Word, but they still won't launch Word. Also, when I try to select a different application to launch the document, I can't find Word in the list of documents. I have had to move to GoogleChrome to restore my ability to launch documents correctly, but I much prefer Firefox. Any ideas?

All Replies (3)

Consider to read this article, that may help: http://mzl.la/1xKrLAq

Thanks Sashoto, but I think the problem is that Firefox is no longer seeing .doc and .docx files as compressed files. This has just started since the automatic upgrade.

One preliminary question:

During your update, do you recall using the Refresh button? This could happen if Firefox restarted and detected that it was performing poorly. It then might suggest using Refresh to improve performance. During that process, and Old Firefox Data folder is created on your computer's desktop.

And to the main issue:

Firefox generally determine the file type based on information sent by the web server. Do you have this issue with ALL doc and docx files, or does it vary depending on the host of the file? As a test, you could use files hosted by Microsoft:

DOC: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.microsoft.com+filetype:DOC

DOCX: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.microsoft.com+filetype:DOCX