# MS Office fails to open any file



## TheDominis (Aug 9, 2008)

I cannot open any files with any Microsoft Office program. Word's error message is "The file <insert filename here> is not available". The following error message is what I get when I try to open any excel file. This is the error message I got when opening a file I just saved.


This error may appear because an antivirus program is not allowing the file to open. This can be caused by either:
The antivirus program needs to be updated due to a compability problem with this program. 
There is a virus in the file but the antivirus program cannot properly remove or process the virus that it has found.
In either case, the file you are attempting to open should be treated as infected until you have updated your antivirus software to the latest updates available from the vendor. All major antivirus software manufacturers have created updates to address known compatibility problems with Microsoft Office programs. They also usually provide a virus signature file that is available for download from the Internet and must be updated regularly to properly scan for all known forms of viruses.
If you are experiencing this problem on a computer where a new version of antivirus software was recently installed from a CD-ROM, connect to the Internet and download the latest updates available from the manufacturer.
If you are experiencing this problem on a computer where the latest version of the software is installed, all signature files are up to date, and the file will not open (but other files do), then the file may be infected with a virus and the antivirus program cannot remove the infection.
The file could also be corrupt (damaged) and cannot be properly handled by either the antivirus software or the affected Microsoft Office program. In this case, it may be necessary to attempt recovery of the file using the related recovery utilities that may be available with the program, although not all program have file recovery or repair capabilities.
For more information about this issue, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 835404.

NOTE: I have no anti-virus software on my computer.


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## macropod (Apr 11, 2008)

Hi TheDominis,

Apart from the obvious risk that not having an anti-virus program dramatically increases the risk that your computer has been infected by a virus that's corrupted your system, you could try repairing your Office installation (Help|Detect & Repair - Office 2000-2003 - or Word Options|Resources|Run MS Office Diagnostics - Office 2007). Regarless of whether this works, get a decent AV program and use it.


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## mynon (Apr 3, 2009)

I have the same issue as TheDominis. It started either after installing PC Tools Spy Doctor Antivirus or running their Registry mechanic. All the MS Office programs are there, they all open, you can create new files, but none of the existing files are accessible. Power Point says the file can't be read by PP, Word says the file is not accessible and Excel says the file can't be opened because your virus scanner has detected a problem with the file. I've uninstalled the 2 Spy Dr programs, run Detect & Repair and done an entire System Restore back to pre-install date. Still not working! Help Please.


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## macropod (Apr 11, 2008)

Hi mynon,

If these problems started happening after installing PC Tools Spy Doctor, as you say, it's quite possible they were infected by a virus.

Whilst I don't know how PC Tools works, it could be that the virus-removal process has left the Word & PwrPt files in a corrupted state. That's sometimes the best an AV tool can do with an infected file.

YMMV with other AV tools but, given that you've already run PC Tools Spy Doctor, those other tools are unlikely to be able to remedy any corruption that might be present. Evidently, PC Tools has been unable to deal with what it sees as a virus in your Excel files and simply denies access to them as a precaution.

Of course, it's _possible _PC Tools is the problem. You could try disabling it temporarily to see if that makes any difference to your Word & PwrPt file access problems.

If you've got backups of your Word, Excel & PwrPt files (you should have), you could try reinstalling them - prefereably after scanning them with PC Tools or another AV program (eg AVG).


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