Office 2003 No Longer Works After Last Night's XP Auto Update

[Guest]

Hi,

Last night I used my computer (Word/Excel -- Office 2003) and everything was
fine. Complete system Norton virus scan shows it is fine.

When I turned the computer off last night, the little "automatic update"
message was there - some MS updates would be installed prior to shutting off
the computer.

Everything appeared to go fine - update installed, computer turned itself off.

This morning, I have a big mess on my hands. Word nor Excel (or probably the
others in the suite of programs) will open a file or save a file. They lock
up. I believe my Explorer file (not IE - the Windows Explorer, I guess it is
called) was corrupted somehow.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003. The problem persists.

I thought I'd uninstall and reinstall Windows XP Professional to fix
whatever is corrupted. Program won't let me do it. The XP CD just tells me I
have a later version on my machine than it is (because SP2 has been
downloaded from MS). If I go through Add/Remove programs, I am warned that
every horrible thing under the sun will happen to every program I have
installed if I uninstalled SP2 so that I can uninstall WinXP and reinstall.

I hope that makes a little bit of sense! I'm really frustrated as I was
going to tackle taxes today (I know- I shouldn't have waited until the last
minute) and instead I can't use my computer since nothing in the Office
product line will open a current or save a document.

Any ideas?? I'm not very technologically savvy now that computers have
advanced so far!

Thanks so much

 

[Guest]

Hi, the exact same thing happened to my computer. I restored it to a time
when I knew it worked and woke up this morning to the same problem. How do
we fix this problem?

Krista

 

[Guest]

Hi Krista,

I wish we'd get a response!! I'm at a complete loss as to what to do. My
system restore must not be set up properly because it won't let me go to an
earlier date when everything worked (last night before the MS automatic
download).

My husband is also experiencing similar problems with his computer. I
suspect the problem is widespread and I hope MS is working feverishly to get
it corrected because I earn my living with my computer! I have at least set
it up now where the downloads don't automatically install so at least maybe I
can see WHAT is being done before it happens.

I'm very frustrated today!

Donna

 

[Guest]

Great news, Krista! Someone on another one of these lists (which I posted to
incorrectly but got help anyway!) suggested that I remove the updates
downloaded from MS last night. I didn't know there is a place at the top of
the Add/Remove dialog box to mark "Show Updates" If you mark that, it will
show you what has been installed and the date of installation. I removed the
4 files that were installed last night for Windows XP, restarted my computer
- and it works again!! Try it and hopefully it will work for you too!

Donna

 

[auwe]

Try going to this thread for a possible fix.
http://www.pcbanter.net/showthread.php?t=875359

I had problems after downloading/installing six XP security updates,
too.
Good luck.

 

[Richard Urban MVP]

Please see this
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-015.mspx
and this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!