Microsoft
I realize the way I worded my response created a wrong impression. My solution does not revert the version of Microsoft Word to a previous version. It uses a remaining unpatched quirk in Microsoft Word that activates the old comment style (without reverting the version) when comparing/combining two documents (in this case the currently open document with itself).
All the macro does is compare the current document to itself (which the dialog box for comparing documents does not allow) and open the result in a new window, making no new changes while preserving all comments and track changes. The new document will need to be saved after doing this, but that's not really a problem.
The macro does not alter the version or hack the registry.
