Open word files without errorus templates

Hi.

I have tried to create an application that will open word document that have a template on a old server, if you open the document in word i takes several minutes to open it and it's the same for when I open it in my VB. net application.

part of the code looks like this:
Dim word As New Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application
Dim doc As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document
doc = word.Documents.Open(file)
doc.AttachedTemplate = ""
doc.Save()

any idea on how to get the files opened without the template or to get word to ignore the template o make it not able to access network or just something?

Thanks for any help