Cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc – Fix

Few days back when I was working on my old PC I received an error “Word cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc”, while I was trying to open a word document. The problem was quiet strange whenever I used to click the “Ok” button the error message was displayed again recursively but on clicking the close “X” button one or two times the document just opened normally.

Cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc

After some research and hit and trial approach I was finally able to fix the problem. Today I will be sharing the fix for this issue:

Reason Behind this error:

Actually this issue is a result of a security update MS09-073. Whenever a simple text file or some other file which is not a Microsoft Word Binary file, but has a “.doc” or “.docx” extension is opened in Microsoft Word then the default converter of Microsoft Word fails to initiate the conversion process and this results into an error, “Word cannot start the converter mswrd632.wpc”.

How to Fix this issue:

Fixing this issue is quiet simple; all you need to do is to simply unregister the mswrd632 converter. Follow the below steps to unregister mswrd632.wpc.

Method 1- Manually Unregistering the Text Converter:

  • Hit the keys “Win+R”, this will open RUN window.
  • In Run, type “regedit” (without quotes) and hit enter, this will open registry editor.
  • Now if you are having a 32 bit system then navigate to the path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Text Converters\Import\MSWord6.wpc

If you are on a 64 bit system then navigate to the path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Text Converters\Import\MSWord6.wpc
unregister mswrd632.wpc
  • Now Right click this key as shown in the below image and click the “Delete” option.
  • This will solve the problem with Microsoft Word but now you won’t be able to open these files in WordPad anymore.
  • To correct the WordPad issues navigate to the key:

For 32 bit system:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\WordPad

For 64 bit system:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\WordPad

create a new Dword value
  •  Now inside the WordPad key, create a new “Dword” value called “AllowConversion” and enter its value as 1.
  • Restart your system and the issue will be fixed.

Method 2 – Fixing the issue by using Microsoft Patch:

As this problem is caused by Microsoft update hence Microsoft has made a patch to correct this issue. Simply visit the page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973904

  • Download the fix 50352 from the page.
  • Close all the Office applications and run the path.
  • The patch will automatically do all the steps mentioned above and finally it will prompt you to restart the system.
  • After restarting the system the issue mswrd632.wpc will be fixed.

That’s all about it. In case you face any other problems please let us know in the comments section we will try to help you out.

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Ankit is the founder of Geek Revealed. He is tech Geek who loves to sit in front of his square headed girlfriend all day long. :D   You can find Ankit on FaceBook or Google Plus

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