Word2003 "Running virus scan"

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Forum? This might be a Win10 issue, in which case ...
I am in the habit of using <Enter> or double-clicking on a DOC in File Explorer; this fires up Word2003 and opens the document.
About 1/10 of the times when Word opens, I see a Word status-bar message "Running virus scan" for about three seconds, and the DOC is NOT opened.
In these cases I Alt-Tab to Explorer, <Enter>, and the DOC opens immediately. No problems.

I would like to know
(a) Who/What is causing this message (and subsequent lack of opening) to occur and
(b) How best I might disable it.

Details
ACER Travelmate P2 laptop 64 bit
Win10 2004 Build 19041.508
Word2003 11.8169.8172 SP3
Other than activating/permitting Windows Defender I have not installed any anti-virus packages.
Of course I immediately Round Up The Usual Suspects, but Everything.exe reports nothing suspicious:
scan001.png
Task Manager- Startup looks like this:
scan002.png
Windows defender seems quietly content, although maybe the "Unwanted Apps" is causing a hyper-active response?
scan003.png
Thanks for any directions.
Chris
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by ChrisGreaves on 06 Oct 2020, 14:18, edited 1 time in total.
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace

User avatar
HansV
Administrator
Posts: 78236
Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 00:14
Status: Microsoft MVP
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by HansV »

Was another anti-virus program installed on this laptop in the past?
Best wishes,
Hans

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
06 Oct 2020, 14:07
Was another anti-virus program installed on this laptop in the past?
Thanks Hans. Not to my knowledge.
I bought the laptop pre-loaded from a store in St John's and, this time around, mostly took your advice, including reliance on Windows Defender.
Indeed I think it is some five years or more since I have used a third-party anti-virus package.
Apart from the screenshots shown in my post, I have made a shallow observations of various status-windows to see if the ACER crowd left some previously-unknown anti-virus package lying around.

Right now I am not sure where to look.
If I eliminate/uninstall/disable practically everything, and the "Running virus scan" persists, then I would suspect Win10/Defender.
Basically, I don't know how to ask Win10 "What aniti-virus packages are installed?".

Cheers
Chris
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace

User avatar
HansV
Administrator
Posts: 78236
Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 00:14
Status: Microsoft MVP
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by HansV »

Does the same problem ever occur when you start Word by itself, as opposed to opening a document from File Explorer?
Does it ever occur when you open a document from within Word?
Best wishes,
Hans

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
06 Oct 2020, 14:38
Does the same problem ever occur when you start Word by itself, as opposed to opening a document from File Explorer?Does it ever occur when you open a document from within Word?
Funnily enough, I don't truly know.

I have observed this behaviour only when opening from Explorer with <Enter> or <Double-click>.
I have not made a close examination of what happens when I use File, Open (or File <digit>) from Within Word2003. I rather think it does not fail-to-open, because if it had occurred from within Word, I would have noticed it.
To answer your upcoming question, It has been four to six weeks since I started noticing the unopen-behaviour.
It might have happened before then, but not frequently.

I should add that I have a few Word2003 shortcuts to applications in my T:\Maint\ folder and occasionally the associated DOC is not loaded from T:\Maint:
scan004.png
I shall, of course, maintain a bit of a log of activities for the next few days.
Thanks
Chris
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace

User avatar
Argus
GoldLounger
Posts: 3081
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 19:07

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by Argus »

I don't think you need to look for other AV software on the machine. I'd say it's a result of what you have; Windows Defender (I assume you're not running anything else in real-time, such as Malwarebytes), a tiny bit slow computer (and Word files with obscure code :evilgrin:). I think most AV software take a peek into office files, but it's sometimes possible to exclude some file types, folders etc. (not what one normally would do). (Sometimes, rare, it may change over time, with new virus definitions, antivirus engines etc.)
Byelingual    When you speak two languages but start losing vocabulary in both of them.

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Argus wrote:
06 Oct 2020, 22:06
...what you have; Windows Defender (I assume you're not running anything else in real-time, such as Malwarebytes),
Hi Argus; yes, I have just Windows defender (As far as I know) running, and I have not tweaked that in anyway. For what it is worth I did a rebuild from Factory Reset about three weeks ago, so when I say "I have not installed 3rd-party a-v software" I am certain of that. I follow a 200-step installation procedure, well-documented.
a tiny bit slow computer (and Word files with obscure code :evilgrin:).
Well, yes, although i don't see what the speed of the machine has to do with failure to open/load an MSWord document. Failure-to-open is different from takes-ages-to-open, right? And now I think of it, I don't see this happening in Excel2003, but then 95% of my Excel work is via a BATchfile/shortcut loading one of my three workbooks, otherwise starting a new workbook as a calculator but from within Excel.
That is, I don't know whether I get the "Running Virus Scan" problem when I open an Excel workbook from Explorer, because I never do that anyway.

"Obscure Code" will be {in}validated when I have logged a few entries and see if any Word documents are persistent in NOT being loaded, sometimes.
it may change over time, with new virus definitions, antivirus engines etc.)
I suspect that this is in part what I am seeing; that some part of Win10 (Yes Defender! We are looking at you!!) hiccoughs because of a configuration on my system.

Finally, it may well be obscure code.Twenty years ago when my utility library UW.dot was locked, a colleague and I had a problem installing a locked application AND UW.dot on his machine. McAfee did not have a problem with the locked application, but did with the UW.dot. In desperation (two hours one afternoon) we removed McAfee with every tool known to man (and woman) but there was a limpet-like chunk of McAfee that would not go away. In the end I did, go away, that is, to lick my wounds.
To this day I believe that McAfee could not unlock either template, but that a byte-string in the locked UW.dot triggered McAfee's immune reaction, and McAfee would not be shaken from is belief.

Cheers
Chris
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace

User avatar
HansV
Administrator
Posts: 78236
Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 00:14
Status: Microsoft MVP
Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by HansV »

As a test, you might temporarily move all your global templates out of Word's startup folder (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP) and see if the problem disappears.
Best wishes,
Hans

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:
07 Oct 2020, 11:05
As a test, you might temporarily move all your global templates out of Word's startup folder (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP) and see if the problem disappears.
If this:
Untitled2.png
changes to this:
Untitled.png
then I'll be in the foulest of moods for the rest of the day.
And we don't want that, do we now? :evilgrin: :evilgrin: :evilgrin:

OK. Good thought Hans, but for the next two or three days I'm going to continue business-as-usual to see if I can spot a pattern along the lines of "It is these three documents that fail to open" or something readily apparent.
If it is a problem in one or more startup templates, then once I have made the error reproducible I can start finding out what makes a specific document (or event) fail-to-open.
I am using my infamous "BillT.bat" to (Notepad ".LOG") track events such as a reboot, a pass through Autoexec.bat, and of course, which documents fail to open.

I feel right now that if I just disable all sixteen startup templates (and my customized Normal212.dot) then (a) I won't know whether I have solved the fail-to-open problem and (b) I won't be able to get any meaningful work done.

To my mind it makes sense to find a reproducible error, and then to solve it. yes?

Thanks
Chris
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace

User avatar
Argus
GoldLounger
Posts: 3081
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 19:07

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by Argus »

ChrisGreaves wrote:
07 Oct 2020, 10:44
a tiny bit slow computer (and Word files with obscure code :evilgrin:).
Well, yes, although i don't see what the speed of the machine has to do with failure to open/load an MSWord document. Failure-to-open is different from takes-ages-to-open, right? And now I think of it, I don't see this happening in Excel2003, but then 95% of my Excel work is via a BATchfile/shortcut loading one of my three workbooks, otherwise starting a new workbook as a calculator but from within Excel.
Was thinking about some timing; if software A tries to open a file (since it got instructions from the OS, which got them from the user's clickety-click in a file manager), but software B intercepts the process and says "not until *I* have had look at this data". :gent: :groovin: Then software B says "gosh, :love: here's an awful lot to check, I'd better get started", meanwhile software A starts tapping its fingers on the table. :please: When software B seems to be taking its time, software A walks away :igiveup: mumbling something about "obstruction" and "self-important".

Excel could be a completely different matter, if for example there's no code to check, or, also obviously, different code.
Byelingual    When you speak two languages but start losing vocabulary in both of them.

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Re: Word2003 "Running virus scan"

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Argus wrote:
06 Oct 2020, 22:06
I'd say it's a result of what you have; Windows Defender (I assume you're not running anything else in real-time, such as Malwarebytes), ...
Hi Argus,
It's been "a few days", so I have attached my LOG file (meaningless perhaps to you guys)
I can see no obvious pattern in FailToOpen events.

So this morning I disabled Windows Defender's Real Time Protection and, like the lousy scientist I am, at the same time disabled the Automatic Sample Submission (the clipped PrtScr image).

I'll run like this for a day or two and see what happens.
Cheers
Chris
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace