I've been fighting with a specific Office 2010 registry key, and I haven't been able to find enough information about the key to stop it from reappearing once and for all.

I've been assisting a client using Office 2010 x64 across a number of machines. They use an application that opens an instance of Word whenever they select a Word document in its store. Word freezes when trying to launch the first instance of that user's session, but ONLY if the following registry value exists:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Alerts\WRC_NextUpdate

I was able to isolate this value by trial and error after finding that it was specific to the user account that was logged in. If the user has the problem, and I delete the WRC_NextUpdate value entirely, the problem goes away. I created a logon script that attempts to remove the key if it exists, but it is sometimes recreated after the user has been logged in, and they begin experiencing the issue again.

Does anyone have any experience with this key, or know what generates it? I'm not sure if it is a possibility that this key is generated by an add-in or other process, but I'm looking for any extra information about this key that will either help me explain its existence or eliminate it entirely.

Hi,

Did this problem just occur when they open their instance of Word? Which application did they used?

I suspect it might be caused by their application or document.

We had received report that a Mail Merge from a third-party activeX control could lead to Word crash. So please confirm whether they use it.

Best regards,

Karen Hu

Karen,

The issue does occur upon Word being opened by an external application. The application in this case is SRSsoft's EMR solution.

What I can't say for sure is if the registry key is added by this application, or if the registry key is added by a default Word process. It seems unusual that an external application would create such a specific entry, and that the entry would cause Word to freeze. I wouldn't be surprised though, since I've found essentially no documentation about the function of this registry key.

The application very frequently automatically populates information into Word documents upon opening the document. So, the Mail Merge issue you've seen sounds similar in nature.

I guess that leaves me with two questions:

Is there any additional information from the known Mail Merge issue that could lead to an explanation of this key?

If not, is there a way to prevent this registry entry from being added? If the value doesn't exist, the problem doesn't occur, regardless of how it gets there. I am interested in knowing the root of the problem, but if there isn't a known explanation, a workaround would be acceptable.

Thanks!

Hi,

Please use Process Monitor to show real-time Registry and find which application create this registry entry.

You could download and know well it from below link:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

Best regards,

Karen Hu