Sometime within the past week, all of my Excel spreadsheets & workbooks as well as all of my Word documents had their icons converted (and perhaps their file extensions -- I'm not sure) so that not one of them can be opened directly with a double-click. When this is attempted, a dialog box pops up stating that the program needed to open the files is not installed on my computer and offers me the option of purchasing a new Office program.
My PC is a HP Desktop with Windows 7 Home Premium, which included the Microsoft Office Starter 2010 program at purchase. I have discovered that I do in fact still have Word & Excel Starter 2010 programs on my computer. But apparently, I must open those programs first now, and then search for the specific document or spreadsheet I want to open from inside the programs.
I am flabbergasted that Microsoft could or would do this with no apparent reason or seemingly good cause. I would like to know the reason for this and how this can even be legal!!
UPDATE:
I just discovered that I received automatic updates form Windows on 9/12/13 which included one for Microsoft Office 2010. After looking at the online support for the update, I was unable to determine exactly what the update was supposed to do or how it might effect the Office Starter 2010 programs I am using, so I uninstalled it. I am happy to say that the problem with my documents is now solved.
I do have one concern remaining however, and that is: will the Windows automatic updates attempt to reinstall this update in the future since it will find that it is not installed on my PC any longer? I really don't want to go through this headache again!