Word closes with message "Microsoft Office has stopped working"

Every time that I open Microsoft Word of PowerPoint, the program freezes
after about 2 seconds with the message "Microsoft Office has stopped
working". I then get the message the Office is looking for a solution, then
the program closes. All of the other programs from the Office Suite 2007
work perfectly. I have installed all of the latest Office and Vista updates.
I have also reinstalled Office to repair problems and even uninstalled
Office the reinstalled it. I get the same problem. I definitely have
genuine software, not copied. Is there any way for me to fix this problem?

What happens when you launch these apps with the /safe switch from
Start/Run?
e.g. "winword /safe", "powerpnt /save"?

I'd suspect an add-in causing problems. PPT doesn't have a safe mode that
disables add-ins when you start it, so instead, go to Office Button | PPT
Options | Add-ins and disable all the add-ins there. Some add-ins actually
ship with PPT, so you don't have to disable them: Custom XML Data, Invisible
on-slide content, off-slide content, presentation notes. You may see others
like this, listed with "document inspector" listed under the Type heading.
Those you don't have to disable.

(my mistake if i'm wrong, but powerpnt.exe /safe did launch PPT safe
mode...what is the point in PPTs safe mode then if not for the add-ins?)

I've been trying to figure that out myself for some time now! Even though
everything indicates Safe Mode, the confirmation message and the title bar,
add-ins still load. (I couldn't believe this either until Echo proved it to
me.

Yeah. Finding and disabling add-ins in PPT 2003 and prior is a real pain.
Here's our FAQ on finding PPT add-ins, just in case you ever need it:

What add-ins are loaded?

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I have just started a new job and haven't
touched my dreaded laptop for a couple of weeks. I definitely think that you
are right. I try and launch PowerPoint and got an error message about
Convert with Flash Paper Add-in. When I try and remove it however, I get the
message "The connected state of Office Add-Ins registered is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed". I have found the program manually in
Macromedia\FlashPaper2, however if I remove it, when I try and load Word, it
asks me for the Macromedia Contribute 3.11 disk. Word then continually shuts
down and reloads with the same problem, shutting down again and reloading
until I manually shut it down. I am sorry for my simplicity, but can you
please advise me on how to manually remove this Add-in? I cannot find it
under Control Panel and Uninstall Programs. Thank you for your trouble.

I don't know if this helps with the problem, but I uninstalled the entire
Macromedia Contribute 3.11 application. This has removed the Convert with
Flash Paper Add-in, however the program still shuts down. If I can enter the
Word options or PowerPoint options before the program shuts down (which is
very difficult, as it shuts down almost instantly). the program is stable and
stays open. As soon as I close the options, it shuts down again. If the
problem is with Add-ins, am I best to just reinstall Vista from the beginning
and start all over?

Since it's not listed in Windows Control Panel | Add-Remove Programs, I
think you should contact Adobe, as they now own the Macromedia products, and
ask them how to completely uninstall this program. I suspect there's a
registry key that gets recreated or something.

If you're adventurous, you could search through your registry to see if you
can find the Contribute key and rename it, which will usually disable the
add-in. It's kind of a drastic move, but it should work. However, if you
don't know what I mean by "edit the registry and rename the key," you
probably don't want to do that.

[Collin517]

If I open Microsoft Word after opening a database program such as Microsoft Access or a program written in .net or another Microsoft database, Microsoft Word will not open and give me the message Microsoft Word has stopped working. It then shuts down.
If I remember to reverse the process and open Microsoft Word before opening the database program everything works fine.
running Windows 7 Pro and Office Pro 2007.