Vista - Help Please Vista Business 32 and Word XP

I am running out of options, I might need to switch to openoffice and abandon
my familiar and trustworthy Word.
The problem, opening files has become a hassle.
I press ctrl + o, the file list comes up, I type the name of the file and
press enter, the file is displayed in the list. Usually, I can just press
enter again and it will open but this does not work on my vista machine. The
file is not highlighted and, even with the title in the typed search field,
the file will not open. The only way to open it is to click on it twice
using the mouse or to highlight it and then press enter. Very clumsy and
only a problem on my vista machine.

Things I have tried: re-installing word, comparing all the settings in
options and customize to those on my xp machine with the same version of
word. No matter what it works on the xp machine and not on the vista
machine.

I am sure there is a simple answer but I cannot find it. Please help.