Metropol

So it's all a big conspiracy theory to sell more virus and malware protection? Maybe but that's much too far into tinfoil hat territory for me to not laugh at.

cdd wrote:--General Statisics--
Number of days I have used computers: c 4400
Percentage of those days I have had antivirus software installed: 0
Number of ActiveX/XPI controls I install when prompted unexpectedly: 0
Number of EXE/COM/BAT/VBS files I run from untrusted publishers: 0
Number of viruses I have had as a consequence of my computer usage: 0

Quite impressive but then I have no idea what you run and for all I know you could be running Lynx through a Unix terminal. Still, even with such stats like that (which could have been made up, no independent adjudicators to prove it) that's only you being smart about where you go and what you do, it doesn't stop dumbasses who do not being dumbasses and almost FUBARing their system.

I use Kaspersky myself, the main reasons are
1 - scanning anything i download from a torrent
2 - in case anyone else uses my computer

to deal with 1 - virtual PC
to deal with 2 - limited user accounts

Nini: WinVista SP1 with UAC set to Auto-Elevate (On, no prompting), Windows Defender off, Security Center off.

I installed AVG and restored Microsoft Office back to its original settings and it seems to have solved the problem. Thanks to everyone who helped.

Oh great, one shiny star for me then.

cdd, you're using Windows and will one day screw up as it's not possible for a system with nothing but a firewall to remain safe but I won't admit you are right as I'd rather the universe didn't cease to exist.