Windows update has left me unable to "save" documents

self

[rudy45]

On Monday evening at about 9:10 pm, I saw an icon in my XP Home Edition (with SP2) computer, telling me that a Windows update needed to be installed. I clicked on it, and it did the installation.

When I restarted Windows, and went into Word and PowerPoint, I found I could not do a save or a save as. When I tried either command, the application simply froze up (the little application icon at the top left of the window became a white rectangle). When I clicked to close the window, Windows gave me the "application is not responding" message.

I did a restore, using a Monday morning 3 am restore point, and everything seemed fine.

Tuesday morning, I discovered that Microsoft had updated my computer automatically. The save/save as problem is with me again. Unfortunately, for some reason I cannot restore using that same Monday morning checkpoint, nor can I use the checkpoint associated with the Tuesday morning automatic update.

How can I resolve this situation? Thanks.

[rudy45]

Here's more information, FWIW:

POWERPNT.EXE szAppVer : 10.0.2623.0 szModName : hungapp
szModVer : 0.0.0.0 offset : 00000000

[BufordP]

http://support.microsoft.com/

[Mad Dawg]

Personally, I'd like to know how this comes up. In my past three computers, two have finally been rendered useless by windows updates. In the first one, MSFT refused to assist in any way. In the second I spent a futile two hours hand-entering commands in the registry and getting nowhere. MSFT free updates generally cost me several hundred dollars.

[rudy45]

OK, good news, I think. After trying several times with system restore, I FINALLY was able to restore my computer to an earlier time, right before the SECOND Windows update. I bring up Word, and now I CAN do a save.

With respect to your post, I discovered something: apparently I didn't need to do a system restore. Maybe all I needed to do was look at the "Review your update history" screen, and uninstall the latest ones?

I also have turned off automatic updates.

Thanks.

[Mad Dawg]

Well, yay.

Now it's time to fire off a letter to our buddies at MSFT, as in:

Dear Bill,
WTF?
Sincerely,
Rudy45

[butternut_squash_bisque]

This might be the source of your problems...

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6062026.html?tag=nl.e589

[rudy45]

Thanks, it sounds kind of like what I experienced. I appreciate it.

[butternut_squash_bisque]

Good luck; I hope you can fix it.

[rudy45]

Thanks, yes I mentioned in an earlier post that I think I fixed things. I had to run system restore a couple of times, but finally I found a restore point against which the system restore actually worked (why would it fail to work on some restore points but on others it would?).

Looking back now, I believe I alternatively (instead of using system restore) maybe could have looked at the update history, and removed the latest updates.

Thanks.

[butternut_squash_bisque]

Excellent!

rudy45 - 1
MS - 0