Making Word Remember My Settings
http://word.tips.net/T003926_Making_Word_Remember_My_Settings.html
Summary: Ever had the experience of setting some configuration option in Word, only to have the option revert to a different setting all on its own? This can be caused by any number of reasons. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word
2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)
Locate the following data key. (This data key, as shown below, is for Word 2003. If you are using Word 97, replace 11.0 with 8.0; for Word 2000 replace it with 9.0; for Word 2002 replace it with 10.0; and for Word 2007 replace it with 12.0.)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data
Understand that if you delete the data key, you will loose quite a few of your Word settings. Which ones? It depends on your version of Word, but you can get a general idea from the info on this page:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/DataKeySettings.htm