cannot open word doc e-mail attachments

[miffy]

hello,

i use a laptop with windows vista and use foxit. i cannot open any word.doc file as i don't seem to have microsoft word. i have microsoft works word processor. pdf documents open fine.
when i try to open a word doc, the download box appears in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and then nothing happens. it goes into my downloads folder and if i try to open the document in word pad it is all encrypted. foxit will not open it at all. it doesn't give me any option to save before opening or downloading the file either.
i have tried opening the file through a web connection to see if it can find the right program to open it but again it doesn't bring anything up.
is there a solution for this, it is so annoying.
thanks for your help!

[Jessica159]

Well, I suggest you thay you should re-install your MS office may be it was corrupted by any virus.