OT: Editing Windows Registry

[samifan24]

I have a problem with MS Word. Every time I open the program, I get the "Word is preparing to install" message and then about a 30 second to one minute wait until the program loads. This is my only problem with the program. I searched online and found this link detailing a way to modify the Windows Registry to potentially fix the problem. Is modifying the Registry something I should undertake by myself? I am a novice yet experienced PC user with little understanding of technical, non-software issues.

While I'm asking about computer issues, I'd like to piggyback on my original question with another unrelated issue. My monitor has also taken to "flickering" several times today, courtesy of some video card problem most likely. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason when it happens, either. I was wondering if anybody knows how I can check that out as well.

Yes I know it's a lot to ask all at once, but Dell tech support is virtually worthless and you guys know a lot and I've seen your expertise in action before so I thought I'd throw it to the wolves. Thanks in advance, gentlemen.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Editing the registry is not difficult if you know where you need to go in there and what changes you need to make. Just don't go mucking around anywhere else -- you can royally screw things up for the operating system if you start poking in the wrong place.

Flickering once an hour is odd, to say the least. Flickering generally, I would put down to not having a high enough refresh rate, but if it's doing it intermittently, that seems like it would be more likely to be a mechanical problem in either the monitor or the graphics card.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Mr. Wednesday

Flickering once an hour is odd, to say the least. Flickering generally, I would put down to not having a high enough refresh rate, but if it's doing it intermittently, that seems like it would be more likely to be a mechanical problem in either the monitor or the graphics card.

Ok, I take it back. It isn't really once an hour. It just started today and seems like it's happened about four times since noon today.

[Mr. Wednesday]

My point stands, though, there's a certain degree of flicker that can happen due to low refresh rate, but it seems from your description like your problem is more serious than that.

[Shepp]

To echo what Mr. Wed. said if the instructions on the registry fix are detailed and you don't mess with anything else you should be ok modifying your registry. Another solution is to try remove and reinstall Word adding the feature that its looking for when you start the program.

As for the monitor problem... it may be either the monitor or the card. If you have access to another monitor try hooking it up to your computer. If the problem persists then its your graphics card. If it goes away then the problem was with the monitor.