doc files will not open

when i try to open my documents i get a message box that says " some files can harm your computer ect. would you like to open or save ?". when i click the mouse the message box just flickers off and on each time i click. my os is windows 98se. please help.

 

You may have done something that associated your files with a browser or something (your computer doesn't know that it's supposed to use Word or whatever you have to open the file). Can you have a look at the files in Windows Explorer and see what the icon to the left of each file looks like. If it's not the normal picture of a document with a "W" in front of it (or it may be something else if you're not using Word - maybe Wordpad or Notepad), you will need to reassociate these files:

Go to one of the files in question, then while holding down the "shift" key, RIGHT click on the file, choose "Open With" from the menu.

In the "Open With" box , place a tick in the box next to "Always use this program to open this file type", then scroll to and double click on the "Winword.exe" listing, or whatever it is that you usually use to open these files. The icon should change back to the right document type (eg. Word) and all .doc files should open correctly using Microsoft Word or whatever as the opener.

It may be that you had Word (or whatever) and it has been removed or corrupted somehow, and that's why the computer is looking elsewhere for something to open your files. Hence, you might do well to firstly make sure that whatever program you usually use to open your files is still there and working (try opening the program and typing something).