'Handle is Invalid' error *only* on .DOC files

I'm new here, guys, so don't shoot me down in flames if this has been covered. I've checked the search, but didn't come up with anything the same.

I've just re-jigged the Good Lady's PC - it had some sort of virus. Wiped it & re-installed Win 7 Pro.

Put back most of the stuff that was there & most everything works except anything that's a '.doc' file.

Clicking on any one of those produces a 'Handle is Invalid' error & won't start. However, dragging & dropping on LibreOffice starts up the file & it can be edited. Saving it again does not fix the problem.

One noticeable difference is that I have gone from MS Office XP to LibreOffice as the old XP was no longer opening some new file being sent to her (choir!).

I am wondering if this may be the cause. I have a copy of MS Office 2010 & will try installing that & taking control of the .doc files. I'll see if that fixes it.

Everything else seems to work (at the moment).

I've spent the afternoon searching Google for this, but whereas I can find many references to 'Handler is Invalid', none are in this specific context.

I'm sure it has a simple cause, & I'm just missing it.

Anyone help here?

OK, I'm replying to my own thread here, as I've just found my own answer!

As mentioned above, I installed MS Office 2010 and changed all the .doc files to being opened by Word. One reboot later (probably unnecessary) everything worked.

I'd never experienced that error before. I've been playing with computers since CP/M.

G.