after updating the operating system it would no longer support MS Office

What on earth are you on about? Michael makes no mention of an OS upgrade.

A few suggestions:

1. If you have the CD, reinstall the software (but presumably you've thought of this?)

2. You should have WordPad on your machine. Do a search for it. If you're .doc files are fairly simple (not lots of tables etc.), that will open them.

3. Otherwise, download LibreOffice which is free and will meet all your needs