word.doc pictures

I use Windows98 but don't have `MS Word`. So to view pictures sent to me
in the `.doc` format I've used `wordviewer97` which has been made available
by Microsoft for just this purpose.
However, my pictures are not opening properly anymore, they are in the
colors of blue and red only. Thinking my viewer was broken I redownloaded
the 97 viewer but with no change to the results. I then deleted my 97 viewer
and downloaded the `wordviewer 2003`. This gave me the message, "requires a
newer version of windows".
Is this an example of Microsoft trying to force people to upgrade from
Win98 to XP?
They might find instead that people will `upgrade` to an open source OS
instead.