Avast WEBforum
Other => General Topics => Topic started by: viktorious on May 27, 2012, 10:03:08 PM
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Using Avast! free 7.0 and Windows XP
I got a Word-file which was created on an Apple PC and exported as .doc.
Avast put in in the sandbox and refused to open it. I fiddled around and tried to shut off the Avast guarding mechanism (don't remember exactely what I did) but it ended up with a black padlock in front of Microsoft Word in the program list.
So Word is completely inusable.
On the other hand I could open the file in Open Office without problems.
How do I get rid of the padlock? I can't find any clue in the user doc.
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A screenshot might tell us more - though I'm quite sure it's not connected to avast!, as is doesn't have any such function.
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can this be it ?
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/master-documents-lock-or-unlock-a-subdocument-HP005186857.aspx
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Thanks for quick reply, but the reply from Pondus do not apply.
I should have mentioned first time that I am using Office 97.
Anyway, I am enclosing a screenshot. In the Office file catalog winword.exe is missing.
Why has this happened when I encountered this problem with AVAST?
What shall I do to get Word working again? Simplest might be to uninstall the whole Office package and reinstall it????? (if it not hangs up somewhere because there is an error in it)
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Office97 is pretty old (but it does the job for most), I still use it and the autosandbox, would probably have pinged winword.exe, as it is unsigned file and not many around now, so it would also be classed as low file prevalence. The Excel.exe file also gets trapped by the autosandbox. I would suggest that you add the paths to these files to the autosandbox exclusions (image1, click to expand.
This however shouldn't remove the file, just recommend that it is run sandboxed.
You can add those two files winword.exe and excel.exe to the autosandbox exclusions. That however won't bring back winword.exe, why it has gone is beyond me, but I can upload a copy to my dropbox account and you can use that.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/56425897/Miscellaneous/WINWORD.EXE (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/56425897/Miscellaneous/WINWORD.EXE)
This file has been scanned, see image2.
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Thanks DavidR. i did exactely as you prescribed and copied your winword.exe into my Office catalog. But it did not help. Padlock still there. When I tried to execute the WINWORD.EXE direct from the Office catalog I got the error message: WINWORD.EXE is not a valid Win32-program.
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I didn't really expect it to resolve the padlock in Office, but to at least get you a copy of winword.exe. I did a quick search and found this http://forums.techarena.in/ms-office-support/894654.htm (http://forums.techarena.in/ms-office-support/894654.htm), see if there is anything there.
Well that error message is at time an indication that there is an infection on the system. Though it could well be something else.
The file is certainly valid, try executing from windows explorer directly (double click) from the location, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE.
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Thanks for help ideas.
I finally resolved the problem by starting my MS Office installation disk and made a "refresh", which restores missing files.
I'm still suspicious of Avast. Why did it behave like it did?
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You're welcome.
Not sure what you mean by misbehaving, the padlock on MS Word has nothing to do with avast or I'm sure we would have seen such reports in the forums, but yours is the first I have seen..
If you are talking about sandboxing, I answered that question the free version has a very limited sandbox function/use, certainly back in May when this topic first started. However in the latest version 7.0.1451 the autosandbox has had some changes.