I routinely change the options for Word 2002 ~ turning off the
autocorrections, increasing the recently used files from 4 to 9, etc.
However, more often than not the options mysteriously reset themselves to
default, and I can't figure out why.

Seems to happen once I close Word entirely and then relaunch it, but I can't
find a pattern. Any thoughts on why this may be happening, and how to get it
to keep my options saved permanently?

I should say the problem has happened for as long as I can remember. I
recently got a new hard drive and reinstalled Office 2002, and the problem
still occurs.

Thanks for any help!