I guess this is more of a rant than a question as I'll be working on my computer again next week.
Here's the story. My dad recently passed away. I'm staying in his house until we get things settled. A lot of his important documents are in Excel and Word files (2013 editions), running Windows7. And all email communications are going through Outlook.
For the last week or so, I've been getting the message that updates are available and to please install. I finally gave in and did the updates. Upon doing so, none of the office programs are loading properly. The screens flash and doesn't fully load. Clicking on anything causes the program to lock-up and crash.
Doing some research for solutions I found the first thing you try is to use the "change" feature in the "Programs and Features" sections. So I do that. It goes out on the internet and says it is fixing the problem. After a few minutes, it comes back and says that I am trying to install a 64bit office program when the individual programs that were installed were 32 bit, and it can't help me. And then closes, and all office programs are gone (uninstalled).
It basically uninstalled everything, and then decided that it can't re-install anything, it then waved good-bye and wished me well. Not unlike an auto mechanic who takes your car apart, finds he can't fix the problem, packs up and heads home while leaving a giant pile of parts sitting on the floor.
I suppose the simple solution is to just re-install everything myself. But that is not really an option in this situation since none of the original disks or packaging is anywhere to be found. If there was anything to be retrieved online, I couldn't get to that because all of his passwords were stored in an excel file - (which I know longer have access to and didn't print out), can't retrieve password because I no longer have access to his email (outlook). Can't use a different email program because I don't have access to his passwords.
When I get my PC here next week, I'll be able to retrieve his files again.
That's all. I feel better now.
Here's the story. My dad recently passed away. I'm staying in his house until we get things settled. A lot of his important documents are in Excel and Word files (2013 editions), running Windows7. And all email communications are going through Outlook.
For the last week or so, I've been getting the message that updates are available and to please install. I finally gave in and did the updates. Upon doing so, none of the office programs are loading properly. The screens flash and doesn't fully load. Clicking on anything causes the program to lock-up and crash.
Doing some research for solutions I found the first thing you try is to use the "change" feature in the "Programs and Features" sections. So I do that. It goes out on the internet and says it is fixing the problem. After a few minutes, it comes back and says that I am trying to install a 64bit office program when the individual programs that were installed were 32 bit, and it can't help me. And then closes, and all office programs are gone (uninstalled).
It basically uninstalled everything, and then decided that it can't re-install anything, it then waved good-bye and wished me well. Not unlike an auto mechanic who takes your car apart, finds he can't fix the problem, packs up and heads home while leaving a giant pile of parts sitting on the floor.
I suppose the simple solution is to just re-install everything myself. But that is not really an option in this situation since none of the original disks or packaging is anywhere to be found. If there was anything to be retrieved online, I couldn't get to that because all of his passwords were stored in an excel file - (which I know longer have access to and didn't print out), can't retrieve password because I no longer have access to his email (outlook). Can't use a different email program because I don't have access to his passwords.
When I get my PC here next week, I'll be able to retrieve his files again.
That's all. I feel better now.
