Avast and Word 2000

[tweets104]

 
I am not an expert by any means so have to rely on others-so here goes
I am using vs.4.8 Home Edition and running Visat Home Premium on an Acer Laptop
About 4 weeks ago my Word 2000 stopped working
It has been suggested that my AV or Firewall may be at the core of the problem, so I'm writing both forums
When I open the program all works well
But if I try to open a word doc from Windows Explorer I get an error message that says windows cannot find the file. Just before that message, I get a User Access Control message telling me that winword.exe is from an unidentifed publisher do I want to allow it to access my compuer

Is it possibe:

Avast may be blocking this action?
And if so, how do I set the permissions (not sure if that's the right term) to allow winword.exe to open the document?

Thanks for any help

[DavidR]

Have (or did) you another Anti-Virus installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

The error message isn't one that is generated by avast and considering this is meant to be from Microsoft, is it possible that this isn't a genuine file. Do a search for winword.exe and see if it isn't in more than one location. When you find its location/s check the file properties and see what it says.

It may even be possible that the file is corrupt.

[tweets104]

Avast is the only AV active on this laptop.
There is only 1 instance of winword.exe and it is is signed by microsoft
My question is whether Avast could be blocking explorer from opening a doc file when the file is double clicked to open.

[cooby]

Avast might block it if there is a macro behind Word which does something malicious. Does the Avast message or log or quarantine tell you anything?

Most likely your problem has to do with windows explorer shell associations.

[DavidR]

Avast is the only AV active on this laptop.

That isn't what I asked as active or not having another resident AV on your system or even remnants of the previous AV can and do on occasion cause conflicts as low level drivers would/could still be loaded. So please answer the question as asked thanks.

There is only 1 instance of winword.exe and it is is signed by microsoft
My question is whether Avast could be blocking explorer from opening a doc file when the file is double clicked to open.

At least we can be reasonable sure that the file is genuine.

avast doesn't block, but scans and alerts to infection. So unless avast has alerted, which I doubt or you would have said, then tweets104's suggestion of a malicious macro (which is in a word document, not the executable) is highly unlikely. There is mileage in checking for conflict in a shell extension (right click context menu stuff) but that is probably harder to find checking for corruption in the file (see below).

So if there is an appearance of blocking then the most likely culprit is either conflict (hence my question on AVs which remains unanswered) or corruption of the file which could prevent it from running. Unfortunately it isn't so easy to test for corruption, you would have to get the file version number (from the file properties), make a note of it and run an MD5 check sum on the file. Then you would need to find a file with the same file version and compare that MD5 check sum.

[tweets104]

The only AV on this laptop has been Avast
It came loaded with a trial for NAV, but I deleted that right away
I have checked fpr macros within word and none were their
There have been no alerts and nothing in quarantine and the log is blank except for update info

I'm pretty sure it's not Avast
I'm off to check the Comodo forums for help with my firewall to see if it may be the culprit
Thanks for your replies

[Lisandro]

It came loaded with a trial for NAV, but I deleted that right away

Even now, I recommend:

1) Remove NAV or Norton 360 through Add/Remove programs from Control Panel. If any is there yet... Boot.
2) Use Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista or Norton Removal Tool for Windows 98/Me. Boot.
3) Install avast! (or repair the installation) and boot.

The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2008/2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products and Norton 360 from your computer.

[bobo1]

IMPORTANT Yes use the Norton removal tool as per Techs post as all symantec/nortons are notorious for leaving bits and pieces behind in the registry

[DavidR]

Most certainly use the Norton removal tool as Norton really gets its hooks into all sorts of places on the system and need thoroughly purged. As I remember from other topics this is also a common issue as Norton does hook word documents (and when installed would be checking them for macros, etc.).

So if the hook is still there is could cause this type of conflict as there is no Norton scanning element present, so effectively you get no action as a scan hasn't taken place in order for the file to be released from the lock put on it.

[tweets104]

OK, I ran the Nprton removal tool and all remains the same.

I give, this has me stumped and since I can use Word by opening the program and then opening doc's thru open, while not happy, I can do what I need to do.
So I quit trying to "fix" this.

Thnaks to all