“Running Virus Scan” Word2003 Win10

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On April 28, 2014 there was a passing mention here: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/windows7-fax-coverpage-garbage/

In the first place I’d like to track down exactly which program is delivering the “Running Virus Scan” message.

I run Word2003 because it gives me all I need for programming applications in VBA.

In July 2020 I bought a new laptop with Win10. prior to that I was running Win7, WinXP and so on. I install the same version of Office2003 installed from the original CD (and I can do it again and again) and the  2003 updates “Office2003Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe” and the FileFormatConverters “20072010Converters/FileFormatConverters.exe”. I have sixteen application templates in my Word Startup folder, but these have been stable for years; updated from time to time, but in place.

After Win10 was installed I found that about two times out of ten, when I opened a MSWord DOCument from File Explorer (<Enter> key or Double-Click), the phrase “Running Virus Scan” appeared in my MSWord status bar – and after a wait of about ten seconds the file would fail to load.

Alt-Tab back to Explorer, <Enter>, and the file loads without the status message!

To the best of my knowledge I am running no anti-virus software except for Win10 Defender with automatic updates.

Obviously I would like to be rid of this hurdle without doing a complete re-installation – but I can do a complete re-installation if required.

 

Some fifteen years ago I had a problem installing my password-protected Utility Template UW.dot on a colleague’s machine that sported McAfee. We could not get rid of McAfee and we both wanted to test an application with the locked UW.dot. Stalemate. That is why I am not running (as far as I know) any 3^rd-party anti-virus software.

What would generate this status message, and how might I identify the culprit?

Thanks

Chris Greaves

 

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

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Sounds like a leftover from Malwarebytes, Norton or “Endnote” add-in:

Disable “Running virus scan” when starting MS Word (Malwarebytes?)

Disabling “Running virus scan” in Win word

“Running Virus Scan…” question: McAfee the problem?

Check for any add-ins which could be disabled or removed:

How to determine whether any COM add-ins are loaded in Word

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B, thank you for the rapid response and the action-packed list of things to do. I have set aside three hours tomorrow to start working through the tips methodically and will report back in full. A quick scan of the four links and some of their links suggests packages (Norton, McAfee, AVG) which I have not installed in over ten years, but I know that they might have been installed with some other downloaded application.

And although at least one followed link is in Word10, I see too that the “Running Virus Scan” has been a problem back to at least one other Word2003 installation from (was it?) 2006?

Over the past three months I have detected no pattern in this message, so for me the message is not explicitly reproducible. I will set a threshold of so-many-loads or so-many-days without the message to determine if the problem is solved. That is, this may take some time (grin)

Thanks again for the leads.

Chris

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

1 user thanked author for this post.

b

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[doriel]

I ran into same issue last week with my Excel 2010. It hang while “virus scan” message exactly as yours.
My workaround?
There were failing Defender updates waiting in the que.

1 – I stopped “Windows Update Service” in computer management.
2 – Quickly rename
C:\Windows\Softwaredistribution
to
C:\Windows\Softwaredistribution.old
3 – Check for updates again.
4 – Install them.
5 – Launch Excel as administrator (rightclick Excel and “Run as Administrator”) – open failing file.

Now all should work as before.. It worked for me, hope this will help. I think it has something to do with the virus definitions..

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by doriel. Reason: text editing

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Chris:

I use Office 2003 on Windows 10 (no snide remarks, please!)

I’ve had this happen to me in the past. This is not related to any A/V you may be running, it happens with the built-in Windows Security app, even if it’s turned off.

The fix that I found after lots of searching on the net was:

Open Word. Click on the Help menu option.

From the drop down menu, select “Detect and Repair…”

When the Detect and Repair window opens, it will look like the attached screen snip.

Click on the “Start” button. It should do its thing very quickly.

Then try to open a Word document. It should open fine. I think this bug also used to affect Excel files. This fix fixes opening Excel files also.

Here’s the link to the web page that has the info on it:

https://word.tips.net/T000316_Cant_Open_a_Word_Document_in_Windows.html

I can’t remember now if I tried any of the other “fixes” on the above web page, but I’ve had to use the Repair process several times, and it works every time. It’s been quite awhile since I had to use it last.

IIRC, if you add or change any parts of Office, like add the File Format Converter, it will re-activate the “bug”. I got hit by it on one system when I thought I had Word running OK, then added the File Format Converter, and it came back.

Good luck.

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[doriel]

doriel wrote:

I ran into same issue last week with my Excel 2010. It hang while “virus scan” message exactly as yours.
My workaround?
There were failing Defender updates waiting in the que.

1 – I stopped “Windows Update Service” in computer management.
2 – Quickly rename
C:\Windows\Softwaredistribution
to
C:\Windows\Softwaredistribution.old
3 – Check for updates again.
4 – Install them.
5 – Launch Excel as administrator (rightclick Excel and “Run as Administrator”) – open failing file.

Now all should work as before.. It worked for me, hope this will help. I think it has something to do with the virus definitions..

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by doriel. Reason: text editing

SkipH wrote:

Chris:

I use Office 2003 on Windows 10 (no snide remarks, please!)

I’ve had this happen to me in the past. This is not related to any A/V you may be running, it happens with the built-in Windows Security app, even if it’s turned off.

The fix that I found after lots of searching on the net was:

Open Word. Click on the Help menu option.

From the drop down menu, select “Detect and Repair…”

When the Detect and Repair window opens, it will look like the attached screen snip.

Click on the “Start” button. It should do its thing very quickly.

Then try to open a Word document. It should open fine. I think this bug also used to affect Excel files. This fix fixes opening Excel files also.

Here’s the link to the web page that has the info on it:

https://word.tips.net/T000316_Cant_Open_a_Word_Document_in_Windows.html

I can’t remember now if I tried any of the other “fixes” on the above web page, but I’ve had to use the Repair process several times, and it works every time. It’s been quite awhile since I had to use it last.

IIRC, if you add or change any parts of Office, like add the File Format Converter, it will re-activate the “bug”. I got hit by it on one system when I thought I had Word running OK, then added the File Format Converter, and it came back.

Good luck.

Skip, thanks for this idea. I tried it immediately but got a “2503 Error”, and a web search turned up suggestions. I suspect that trying this fix in the cafe without my original installation CD. I shall wait until I am home, then try again.

In the meantime, I have uploaded http://chrisgreaves.com/Downloads/RunningVirusScan.doc and will upload a revised copy each time I explore, just to avoid cluttering up this exotic thread with tons of text and images!

Cheers

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

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While reading Doriel’s post, it reminded me that another thing that running Word 2003 and Excel 2003 might have needed to be done was to run either of those programs from the .EXE file in the installation directory as “Administrator” at least one time, or I vaguely remember it asking to be activated every time it was started. It’s been awhile since I installed it on my system, sorry I can’t remember exactly

On my system (Windows 10 Pro, 1909, Build 18363.1316), the main Office files are in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11

Find the “WinWord.EXE” file in the OFFICE11 folder, right-click on it, then select “Run as administrator” from the menu, and OK that process. Neither of the programs (Word or Excel) can be “run as administrator” from the default shortcuts that are created when installing the programs, there’s no option for that on the right-click menu for their icons.

Then, when Word (or Excel) is running as “administrator”, I think Chris might have success in doing the “Detect and Repair…” process.

As for needing the original installation CD…on my system, installing Office 2003 made an “MSOCache” folder in the root of the C: drive, so the files needed to uninstall, change or repair the Office programs are located on the C: drive.

I never had to do any of the other suggested “fixes” that others have been posting…doing a “Detect and Repair…” from the Help menu fixed it every time.

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doriel

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I had this problem too, and it was driving me nuts. When I tried to open .doc files from shortcuts, Word said “Running virus scan…” and didn’t open the documents.

I tried all the suggestions here. Nothing. What finally fixed it for me was going to Word’s executable file—on my system, it’s here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Winword.exe

…right-clicking it, clicking Properties, and on the Compatibility tab, setting “Compatibility mode” to “Windows 7”. (I’d tried setting it for earlier Windows versions, and figured there was nothing to lose.)

Don’t ask me why it solved the problem! But I thought I should mention it here in case anyone else found it useful. Cheers, A.

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