Multiple "Program Has Stopped Working" Errors Outlook, Word, Excel, PP, Adobe, etc.

I'm getting the Program Has Stopped Working error dialog box when I try to launch MS Word, Excel, etc. and then the program closes. The programs will usually open successfully to a blank document or spreadsheet but then when I use a dropdown menu to try to open file, the dialog box appears and the program terminates. At first I thought malware was the problem so I posted in the MG malware, ran all the fixes that Chaslang recommended and Chaslang thinks my PC is clean of malware and that this is a software problem. The Malware thread is linked below.

Has anyone seen this problem and have any ideas? Am I looking at reinstalling the programs? I'm really worried that I will have to do an OS reinstall. That will cause me a ton of pain . . . .

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=280160

 

Re: Multiple "Program Has Stopped Working" Errors Outlook, Word, Excel, PP, Adobe, et

Had a similar problem, and the solution for me was to reinstall flash and shockwave. I narrowed it down to activex controls being messed up by an uninstaller. I think it removed some shared .dlls or registry keys when I unistalled a program. :-o

Have you run the repair feature of MS Office in add/remove programs?