after install canot open xl and word files

free version of avast/win xp pro/when i goto open excel files i get a message"the file cannot be opened because your virus scanner has detected a problem with the file" i tried to change about every setting and then uninstalled and message still comes up???

It doesn’t sound like an avast! message… can you post a screenshot, please?

sorry how do i do that.The box says microsoft excel at the top with a yellow !.this started happening as soon as i put avast on so i presumed thats what it was.

When it’s Excel that gives the error message, the problem is somewhere else. Excel probably thinks that there is an antivirus registered in Office and passes the opened files to it. When the antivirus isn’t there, however, it fails.
avast! does not work this way - Office doesn’t know about it. If you try to open an infected document in Office, avast! would detect the disk access and block it - so, Excel would given you an “Access denied” error, or something like that.

Did you have Norton Antivirus installed before? Would this or this link help you?

i did have norton previously.i understand what you are saying and will try the links. cheers

re-installed norton -unticked plugin tab and uninstalled norton and files will now open.
thankyou very much. ;D ;D ;D ;D

I’ve been having similar issues here after clean installs of the operating system; Something definately is arry.