Hi Brent

Make a new desktop shortcut for Word: Using Windows Explorer, find the file
Winword.exe (probably in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office). Use the
*right* mouse button to click it and drag it to the desktop. When you
release the right button, you get a popup menu; select "Create shortcut
here". (The Winword.exe file should still be in the Office folder, not moved
to the desktop.)

Right-click the shortcut's icon and select Properties. In the dialog, go to
the end of the Target box after the closing quote of the path. Type a space
and then type

   /mFile1

so the resulting target looks like

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe" /mFile1

Click OK. Now rename your new shortcut to distinguish it from the original
Word shortcut, and try it.

This works because Word has a built-in command named File1 that opens the
most recently used file (the item with the accelerator key '1' on the File
menu). The /m switch tells word to run that command during startup.