Word and Excel crash after opening through Outlook attachment : Fix It

There is a sudden increase in the number of incidents where users are reporting that their Word and Excel crashes and then stops working after they try to open Outlook attachments. After the first crash, if they are trying to launch Word and Excel, the splash screen flashes, and then Word and Excel close immediately. This issue has been reported on Reddit and Microsoft forums as well and users are confused that why is it happening.

Let me tell you the reason behind it. The issue is being caused by a potentially unwanted program, or in simple words, you can say, by a Virus and the name of the virus is "SAntivirus", how funny, a virus with the word antivirus in it's name. S stands for Segurazo in "SAntivirus" and this virus is so clever that it is not being detected by most of the antiviruses and if you uninstall it through the control panel, it comes back automatically.
So I tested this virus in my own PC and found that it was the actual cause of the Word and Excel crash and to remove this virus, I would tell you the easiest way.

1. Install MalwareBytes free version from https://www.malwarebytes.com/ and run it.
2. After running the malwarebytes, perform a full system scan.
3. It would show several threats hidden in the machine and most of them would be created by SAntivirus malware.
4. Once the scan is completed, click on Quarantine or Remove and wait for malwarebytes to delete the virus completely.
5. Once done, it would ask you to restart the computer. Allow malwarebytes to restart the computer and after the restart, open C:\Program Files OR C:\Program Files(x86) and delete the folder "Digital Communications"
6. That's it, launch Outlook and check if the Word and Excel crash while opening any attachment. The issue would be resolved for sure.

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Fix Microsoft Office installation and other common errors easily by manual removal

Microsoft Office is the most popular productivity suite used to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. You can find it installed on the computer of almost every user who uses PCs for Office work. Working on Office applications efficiently is not an easy task and when it comes to troubleshooting the issues with Office applications (launching issues, error codes and error messages, activation issues, etc), it really becomes a nightmare. Most of the people dial the Microsoft support's number and wait in a long call queue and then spend several hours to get their issues resolved with the help of Microsoft technicians. So, to make it easy for you, I am sharing the best troubleshooting method to fix most of the common issues with Microsoft Office. This method is called "Manual Removal" of Office which includes some advance steps which normal uninstallation doesn't include.
Disclaimer: If you are an Outlook user, make sure to keep a backup of your data because this method would reset your Outlook and you would have to reconfigure your emails in Outlook.
So let's start:

1. Download and run the Office uninstall fixit from http://tinyurl.com/oldofficefixitdirect
2. When you are done with the fixit, it is time to remove the Office leftover files to completely remove Office from the machine. To do so, press Windows W and R keys together and then type %appdata% in the Run box and click OK.
3. Now the "Roaming" folder would open. From this folder, open "Microsoft" and then delete Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Office folders and then close this folder.
4. Now open the run box again and type %programdata% and then again open "Microsoft" folder from it and delete "Office" folder.
5. Now open run box and type regedit and click OK. It would open the registry editor. Now expand "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" folder and then expand "SOFTWARE", then expand "MICROSOFT" and then delete "Office" registry key from there (Right click on it and delete). If there is any other registry key which starts with the word "Office", delete that as well.
6. Now expand the other hive, "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" and follow the same path to find the Office registry entries and delete them. If you get any error while deleting the keys, right click on the Office entry and then click on "Permissions". Now click on "Advanced" button and then tick the checkbox for the option "Replace all child object.....from this object" and click OK. Now you would be back to the permission window, tick the allow checkbox for "Full Control" and click OK. Then delete the Office registry keys, you won't get any error.
7. Now expand the HKEY_USERS registry hive and follow the same path to get to the Office registry entry and delete that as well. To make sure you won't get any activation issues, right click on the "S-1-5-20" registry entry under the HKEY_USERS hive and right click on it and click on "Permissions". Now allow the full control to this entry and click OK.
8. Restart the machine now.
9. After the machine is restarted, open "C:\Program Files" and "C:\Program Files (x86)" folders and delete the Microsoft Office folders from there.
10. Now run the Office setup as administrator by right-clicking on the installer and clicking on "Run as Administrator".
11. Once the installation is completed, check your office applications, they should be working fine.

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