|A free app that can handle most doc files is "Open Office"
|  C K
|
That's http://openoffice.org
(VERY powerful.)

|but not sure if newer versions work on Win 9X.
|
All versions currently available will work under **any** version of Windoze
(as well as Unix and many Unix-like OSes--Linux, BSD, OS X).
More below.

|I've had problems with it handling some file formats correctly...
|
That's odd.  OOo opens more ostensibly M$-compatible document types (versions)
than does M$ Office.
It's been a well-known trick for YEARS
that if you can't get a document to open in M$ Office, try OpenOffice.
It is RARE when that won't open an exemplar of a supported format.

|..and crashing...
|
NOT a commonly reported problem.  Perhaps a reinstall of the app is indicated.

Many people say OOo is slower than M$ Office;
I haven't have noticed a problem with its speed.

|...so can't endorse it whole heartedly...
|
I can--AND I DO.

|...but it may work for you if you need something to read the files.
|
As noted:  It does a BETTER job than ANY version of M$ Office
when trying to open supported M$ file formats.


The current version of OOo is 2.4.
Rumors are that it will be the last version to support W98.

...and UNLIKE M$ PROGRAMS, when a new version of OpenOffice is released,
the old versions **do not** become unavailable from its producers.
Old versions can still be easily acquired and they are still completely FREE.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 is due in September 2008.
It is expected to support OOXML (DOCX, XLSX,...)
(well, as best that poorly-defined "standard" can be decyphered outside Redmond).

OOo v3 is also expected to drop support for Win9x.
Note: If you are planning to move to (FREE) Linux, this is a good year for that;
The upcoming version of Firefox (and SeaMonkey) will also drop Win9x support.

As has been noted here several times before,
software firewall vendors have also been dropping Win9x support.

Note:  Linux ships with a free software firewall
and there is a wide choice of others (still free).
You can even use ancient hardware you have lying around
to run a version of Linux that is built specifically as a firewall implementation.
http://www.livecdlist.com/?pick=All&showonly=firewall

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