This one's weird. No matter what Excel spreadsheet I try to open, I get this notice: "The file cannot be opened because your virus scanner has detected a problem with the file."

If I try to open any Word document, I get this notice: "The file 'FileName.docx' is not available."

If I try to open any PowerPoint presentation, I get this notice: "PowerPoint can't read [full path name]". Then there's an option for more details and it says something about my anti virus software.

This happens with ANY office file. Old files, new files, even a file I create right now and save cannot be opened.

I use the fully paid AVG 8.0 suite for anti virus, spyware, firewall, etc. and it's always up to date.

It gets weirder - I cannot open AVG. And there's no AVG icon in the tray like there usually is. And Windows Security Alerts is telling me that AVG's Malware is telling it that it (AVG) might be out of date. Clicking "Update" does nothing.

I uninstalled the six Windows updates that came in today and rebooted, the Office files still won't open.

I even rolled my computer back (system restore) to three days ago and I can't open Office files and I can't get at AVG.

I guess the last desperate measure is uninstall AVG, then find the installation file and try to reinstall.

An AVG uninstall followed by a fresh install seems to have done the trick.

All is now well. I don't know if I needed to uninstall the six MS updates or not, but now I have reinstalled them and all is well. So, here's the sequence:

Yesterday I had no problems.
This morning I installed the six MS updates.
AVG updates itself every four hours.
Suddenly, I couldn't open office documents or access AVG.
I uninstalled the six updates, things still didn't work.
I used system restore to roll back THREE! days.
I uninstalled AVG.
I reinstalled AVG.
Everything started working fine.
I reinstalled the six MS Updates.
Everything is still working fine.

I think AVG did something stupid, but I can't be sure.

Ah, the joys of being a Windows kind of guy.

whs says, "Thanks for updating us. "

You are welcome. I sure have missed this place. I spent a whole lot of time here when I first got Vista, then things have taken off business wise and I don't have much opportunity to just surf around anymore.