Word Files Cause Error (case 4807)

Similar to another thread, I get an error message 440 System Error &H8001010A (-2147417846). The message filter indicated that the application is busy.. This item will be skipped.
In some cases, the program stops and when endd using Task Manager, responds by saying that the file (C:\MediaLab\expmnt1\%1.doc) can not be found.
As noted in the other thread, the error goes away if Word is started and minimized before starting MediaLab. However, this is not a good solution when other experiments are being run, some of which do not use MediaLab.
Using Windows 7 and Office 2010

I would guess MediaLab after some amount of time (I don't know how much) decides an outside program (like Word) is not working properly, and moves on. This would explain why starting the program in advance is helping.

However, why Word would be opening slowly could have many potential causes. What are your system specs, and how do they compare to the specs for Word 2010, MediaLab (which version?) and Windows 7? How many programs do you have running at once, and do you have any large background programs (e.g., some anti-virus programs)? Is the Word document especially large, perhaps because of embedded images or other media?

I think your first steps are to check the specs, and if it seems like your system should have no trouble doing what you're asking it to do it, give the computer a basic check-up. Make sure updates are installed, scan for malware, etc.

Let me know if that helps.

On a Win7 system, I made a very basic study in MediaLab v2012 that opened 3 Word 2007 files (*.doc).

Without Word already running, I went through the study, Word text displayed properly.

However, when the study finished and I closed MediaLab, Word had remained open, minimised in the task bar with no document shown, only the empty Word frame.

I tried .docx and .rtf files; both invoked winword.exe, and left Word open after MediaLab was finished and closed.

I also ran the same experiment using PowerPoint Show .pps files. When MediaLab was finished, PowerPoint was closed.

Compared to the two posts about Word 2010, using Word 2007 produced no error messages; however, MediaLab leaves Word open when such files are used.

A short-term solution is to not rely on Word, replace each .doc file with the identical content save as .htm/.html.

With regard to USER2000's comments
These are relatively new Dell desktops and their performance is more than adequate for everything that is being run on them. I don't have the exact specs readily available.
The problem occurs when nothing else is running besides MediaLab so I suspect that it is an issue of MediaLab not associating the file extension with word or not being able to open Word.
These are lab machines that were completely re-imaged at the beginning of the term. I'll check on the anti-virus software but that should not be a problem.
Lastly, in response to timritchie's suggestion that the files be converted to html, I do not like working with html files, especially using Word. I would rather than just start and minimize Word. As this problem only developed when we switched to Windows 7, I think that it has somethingto do with how MediaLab was recoded to run under Windows 7 (64-bit). However, I have not keep up with the ins and outs of the operating systems since Windows replaced DOS so this is pure speculation.

Thanks to both for your comments.