Excel (of all varieties) has a propensity to corrupt spreadsheets. The only way around this is to cut&paste the data into a new workbook and delete the old one. Maybe this is your issue?

Mike - the problem exists with blank sheets/docs. Clicking on the file directly from Explorer/My Computer loads fine. Also saving to the default directory is ok.

I'll rephrase an earlier question - what printer are you using, and does it have any memory card slots?

Epson RX560, yes but empty

I'll take a guess that you've got that installed across the network, not direct by USB, and that the card slots are mapped as network drives

What happens if you delete the network drives from windows explorer?
Any change?

Direct USB, james, no network drives on the system.

Acrobat/Acr Reader, graphics programmes, Open Office, etc etc - all work normally. Word 2010 does not. This is an XP/2010 issue since W2010 works 'normally' on my W7 setup.

This am I moved down through My Computer to another drive and folder. When I selected a .doc file to open it hung there this time. Next time in it hung on 'My Computer' access. When I go to T manager to close it down I have two instances of Word both 'not responding'.

Before I abandon 2010 for 2003, can anyone tell me what the process is called in xp/ 2010 where a window opens with file trees and one 'navigates' around the structure? Hopefully then I can Google a little more precisely.

thats just called browsing

I don't suppose that Skydrive D: has reappeared?

I actually would like the process name, james - 2010 obviously uses a different system to other XP progs including explorer/Adobe/Photoshop/etc etc and that seems to be where the problem is occurring. Office 2003 does not.

Skydrive long gone.

the program is just explorer.exe

Cannot be, james, as that works normally? In any case, if that is all it is calling, why do the other progs work correctly presumably calling it too?