unreadable .doc files - how to open them correctly, offline, for free?

I tried to view some documents in Wordpad, and they couldn't be displayed properly.
since .doc is a Word format, I tried Word, but to my horror I see that I have to upload every file I want to use to OneDrive in order to be allowed to look at it myself ... what fresh hell is this? I knew surveillance capitalism was getting out of hand, but ****ing yikes!! anyway, I clicked yes and still it wouldn't respond and actually display my file anywhere. -- in any case this is not a solution

on Win ME I was able to write and save .doc files freely and easily in Wordpad.
on Win 7 I was able to open old Wordpad .docs in a 'viewer'(-only) program and copy-paste content into a new Wordpad RTF to save them in a current format, converting files on an as-needed basis.
on Win 10 I can't even merely open them correctly anymore.
(what I'd consider a solution is restoring the function I had on Windows ME and Windows 7: 1. correct formatting. 2. offline access to my files. 3. free access to my files)

- Wordpad can, after a fashion, display the bulk of the raw text, but I lose some of the beginning and all of the formatting.

- DOC Viewer Free from the Microsoft store just does the loading symbol then crashes when it tries to open the file

- tenforums threads I've found on this issue only offer solutions for .DOCX format, or provide defunct links to old compatibility software that may or may not have been useful.

a third-party offline DOC to RTF converter would do ...if there's one that works!

- MultiDoc Converter batch converts and says 'ok' to every file, but only RTF and TXT files are converted, .doc files are created as a set of identically sized blank documents.

- Doxillion Document Converter fails: "not a valid .doc file"

I don't see where I can get any properties details that says which kind of .doc file it is, what it was compatible with.

Try opening in a free Office compatible alternative such as LibreOffice, for a quick test there's a portable version available that doesn't require an install. If you can open it successfully in LibreOffice then you can save it in any format you like.

Portable versions | LibreOffice - Free Office Suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

Bree said:

Try opening in a free Office compatible alternative such as LibreOffice, for a quick test there's a portable version available that doesn't require an install. If you can open it successfully in LibreOffice then you can save it in any format you like.

Portable versions | LibreOffice - Free Office Suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

thanks!
I remember trying this program many many years ago and the text display had intolerably messed up kerning for unknown reasons so I never looked at it again.

wouldn't let me install here for some reason, but it worked in C:\Users lol

multitaskbars said:

...wouldn't let me install here for some reason, but it worked in C:\Users lol

You need to run as admin in order to create a folder in or copy files to C:\Program Files. By default you are running apps as a standard user even if you signed in with an admin account, which is why you could create the folder in C:\Users but not in Program Files. Now you have created it you can move the folder to Program Files if you like, though personally I prefer to keep portable apps separate and have created a C:\Portable Apps folder for mine.

Bree said:

You need to run as admin in order to create a folder in or copy files to C:\Program Files. By default you are running apps as a standard user even if you signed in with an admin account, which is why you could create the folder in C:\Users but not in Program Files. Now you have created it you can move the folder to Program Files if you like, though personally I prefer to keep portable apps separate and have created a C:\Portable Apps folder for mine.

often it gives me a prompt to do so, but here I wasn't given the option (I guess it was in the right click menu or sumn?)

thanks again.
Libri is capable of reading old Microsoft .docs Microsoft itself is no longer competent to open lol.