Word, Excel, Internet Explorer all broken at once?

30th April 2006

Jesse Black, of Yellow Crayon Computer Services submitted this tip below to the OCCA (Oregon Computer Consulatants Association) membership list. I also got a customer emails asking me how to fix this, so I thought I’d post Jesse’s tip below.

This is another reason why, on the West Side of Portland, I refer my all of my home computer repair and peer to peer networking phone calls to Jesse Black, at 971-645-1139. Tell him Scott sent ya!

File -> Open … doesn’t work in Excel, but double-clicking the file works.
File -> Open … doesn’t work in Word, but double-clicking the file works.
Typing a web address into Internet Explorer does nothing

Solution? Uninstall HP Share-to-web, which is installed for HP cameras, multifunction printers, etc.!

It turns out that Microsoft security update KB908531 doesn’t play well with 3rd party apps, such as
“Hewlett Packard’s Share-to-Web software, nVidia shell extension GUID’s, Kerio Personal Firewall, Roxio DragToDisc / Adaptec DirectCD shell extension, or SolidWorkds 3D CAD products shell extension” (see http://claydawg.helpdesk.olemiss.edu/?p=90).

Reportedly the problem manifests itself in Outlook as well - see this